The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has given the government seven days to resolve the ongoing nurses’ strike, warning that doctors could join the industrial action if the standoff is not addressed.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

KMPDU Secretary-General Dr Davji Bhimji Atellah said the nurses’ strike had disrupted essential health services across the country, leaving public hospitals operating under severe constraints.

Atellah said patients requiring nursing care were struggling to access essential services, warning that the situation was becoming increasingly unsafe for both patients and healthcare workers.

“Essential services have been disrupted. There is no better way to say that patients going to hospital who need nursing care cannot get it, and nursing care is key for any health service to be functional,” Atellah said.

📌 What You Need to Know

“Today we have 40 days in our public hospitals across the country that are constrained. It is increasingly becoming unsafe when doctors, whom we know are in shortage in the country, are overburdened,” he added.

According to Atellah, hospitals were now operating at the bare minimum, with the disruption contributing to preventable complications and deaths among patients, including children.

He called on the government to intervene, arguing that the health system could not continue operating as though everything was normal while a key component of healthcare delivery remained on strike.

“The government of the day cannot continue to assume things are normal when a key component of the health system has been on strike for over 40 days,” Atellah said.

The ultimatum comes about a week after Council of Governors Chair Ahmed Abdullahi urged striking nurses to return to work , saying the governors were willing to continue negotiations over the unresolved Collective Bargaining Agreement, which dates back to discussions held before the 2017 General Election but has never been fully implemented.

The CoG chair said negotiations with nurses had been ongoing when the union called the strike, complicating efforts to reach an agreement. The nurses have continued pushing for the implementation of outstanding provisions in the agreement.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke