Kisumu Doctors vow not to go back to work until the Agreement settled fully
By Dickson Odhiambo
December 20, 2019
Kisumu Doctors vow
not to go back to work until the Agreement settled fully
PATIENTS seeking health services at various public health
facilities in Kisumu are likely to continue suffering as doctors have vowed not to go
back to work until the issue of promotion is fully addressed.
They say this should be done as envisaged in the
Collective Bargaining Agreement they signed with the County Government of
Kisumu in June this year.
Led by the Chairman of the Kenya Medical Practitioners,
Pharmacists and Dentists Union {KMPDU} Nyanza Regional Branch Dr. Kevin Osuri,
the medics have said unless the County Government of Kisumu honor the Agreement
they won’t step in their places of work.
Addressing the press at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and
Referral Hospital in Kisumu today, the doctors vowed that their ongoing strike
will continue until they get what they deserve as professionals.
“We want the county Government of Kisumu to implement the
Return to work Agreement we signed on June 24,2019, failure to which we won’t
go back to work,” they say.
Dr. Osuri says the current letter purported to have been
written by the Department of Health in Kisumu County does not contain what they
had earlier agreed on in June this year, adding that it looks like a ‘Love
letter’.
A letter purported to have been written by the Department of
Health in Kisumu County through the public Service Board has instructed the
doctors to go and collect their promotion letters with an aim of ending the ongoing strike.
“We are ready to go back to work immediately the County
Government of Kisumu stick to its words by honoring the return to Work
Agreement,” Osuri says.
The medics have urged patients seeking health services in
public hospitals in Kisumu County to instead do so in neigbouring counties of
Kakamega, Kisii or any other county that values the welfare of their doctors.
“We are asking the members of the public to seek health
services in private hospitals or in the neighbouring counties that have taken
the issues of doctors seriously,” they added.
Doctors in Public Hospitals have been on strike since last
week after the county Government of Kisumu allegedly failed to implement the
Collective Bargaining Agreement signed between the Kenya Medical Practitioners,
Pharmacists and Dentists Union on June 24 this year.
In a return to work Agreement signed between the County
Government of Kisumu and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and
Dentists Union on June 24 this year,the County Government said that it had made
budgetary allocation to carter for promotions in line with the doctor’s CBA.
“All doctors who have attained Master’s degree will enter at
Job Group Q.All Doctors whose promotions are overdue will be promoted to the
correct Job Groups with effect from July 1, 2019 as competitive cadre
promotions shall be effected by July 31,2019 and arrears arising from the
promotion will be factored in the September 2019 pay roll and backdated to July
1,2019,” read part of the agreement.
ENDS:
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment