Acting Health DG Patrick Amoth has said the issue of internship which remains the elephant in the room has a historical perspective.
Amoth said unlike 10 years ago when only the University of Nairobi was the only medical institution churning out 90 to 100 graduates per year, there currently exist 12 medical training institutions today.
He noted that these institutions currently churn out close to 1,000 graduates mostly due to the module II programme.
Despite the high numbers, the resources allocated to the ministry remain the same, Amoth said.
"The issue of internship, they (unions) say it has been a perennial problem mismanaged by the government and this also has a historical perspective," Amoth said.
"Resources allocated to the ministry have not been in tandem with the increased number of graduands coming out of the training institutions and the sudden surge of graduands from these medical schools is because of the module two programme."
The DG has maintained that dialogue is the only way through which the current strike stalemate can be resolved.
Speaking on Citizen TV on Thursday, Amoth said both parties should come to the negotiating table for the interest of the common Kenyan.
Amoth noted that, unlike other well-off Kenyans who can seek medical care from private facilities, the poor suffer the most when strikes happen.
The DG said strikes tend to disproportionately affect women, children, people with disabilities, the elderly and underserved populations.
"There is no way out of this impasse apart from dialogue. We have to sit, we have to disagree and agree to disagree until we come up with a common position," Amoth said.
"That is in the interest of the public, not in our interests as government or the union. Neither the union nor the government is bigger than the Kenyan people," the DG added.
He reiterated the commitment of the government to solve the impasse, noting that several meetings have seen some of the issues raised by the doctors addressed.
Amoth said the current strike by the doctors is as a result of a myriad of challenges paused by the CBA that was signed in 2017.
He noted that the 19 issues which had been raised by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) had been filtered.
Out of the 19, it was found that nine fall squarely under the county governments, six under the national government while four are shared mutually between the the two levels of government.
He said the issue of basic salaries which falls under the ministry had been addressed adding that they were in discussion with the Treasury and the universities to solve the issue of postgraduate studies .
According to the DG, the ministry of received invoices to the tune of Sh200 million to sort out the issue.
Amoth said the ministry had received Sh85 million, Sh13 million and Sh7 million invoices from the Universities of Nairobi, Kabarak and Moi respectively to that effect.
"There are other students who went for training in other institutions so the total amount due for this is about Sh200 million," he said.
"We are very optimistic that we are going to secure this resource from the national treasury to ensure that the doctors can continue with their studies and sit their exams," the DG noted.
