Church urges doctors to end strike for patients’ sake

The Church has called on medics to consider the welfare of suffering patients and end the ongoing strike and give dialogue a chance.

Bishop Samuel Ngacha Njiriri of the Stewards Revival Pentecostal Church says the striking doctors needs to understand the government’s dilemma over their demands for money and shelve the industrial action until when the economy improves.

Piling pressure

“We all agree that the doctors deserve higher pay due to the nature of their work as well as the years they take in college while studies medicine. But at the moment, piling more pressure on the government for more is untenable because there is no money,” Bishop Njiriri told journalists on Sunday.

The cleric however condemned the two sides of what he said was using human life as a trading currency as health services were paralysed in public health facilities across the country.

The bishop raised concerns that Kenyans across the country have continued to suffer since services have been grounded in all public health facilities.

Talks to end the strike hit a snag a month ago after the government side led by Deputy Chief of Staff and Deputy Head of Public Service Josphat Nanok refused to engage the striking medics any longer until they called off their work boycott.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) on the other hand through secretary general Davji Atella have insisted the strike would go on, until all their demands are met.

Some of the issues that the doctors want addressed by the government are the posting of interns and their salaries, Collective Bargaining Agreement and counties to harmonise doctors’ pay.