KNH: 700 doctors on strike, want suspended officials reinstated

About 700 doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital on Monday downed their tools demanding the reinstatement of their colleagues who were suspended after a surgery mix up.

Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists & Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) on Monday gave the KNH board a list of their irreducible minimums, beginning with the unconditional reinstatement of all suspended medical personnel from the institution.

Dr. Oluga said that the doctors-in-training at the institution would cease all services forthwith as they wait for their lecturers, who are also their supervisors, to resume work from the ongoing strike.

“Because of the absence of the university lecturers, who are actually the doctors who teach, the registrars will not continue to work unsupervised because when they work unsupervised then they are not protected by the system as you have seen with the cases that are going on. We do not want to be giving care that is not authorised by our own supervisors who are away on strike, “said Oluga.

“So, from today, the over 700 doctors-in-training who are actually the backbone of people who work at the emergency, accidents and theaters will no longer continue to work,” he added.

The KMPDU boss further intimated that they had formulated a 7-member team composed of senior professors from both the University of Nairobi and KNH to institute safety measures to be followed by all medical personnel within the next 14 days.

Dr. Oluga also claims that the KNH board had not employed most of the medical personnel at the institution and therefore had no right to suspend them.

“Kenyatta National Hospital relies on workers that are actually not theirs; they don’t pay them, then they purport to suspend them. You can’t suspend someone who you never employed in the first place; like the neurosurgery resident and the other staff that they claim to have suspended did not come here courtesy of KNH but the University of Nairobi,” said Oluga.

“We want to make it very clear to the KNH board that, as a union, we are demanding that the suspended staff have to be reinstated unconditionally,” he added.

Oluga further demanded that the union be involved in any investigations at the institution, and extended his regret and sympathy towards the patients and the families involved during the recent botched brain surgery.

Dr. Oroko Obegi, the KMPDU chairman, on his part condemned the suspensions of Dr. Benard Githae, the KNH Director of Clinical Services and Lily Koros, the KNH CEO terming their suspensions as unfair.

He also slammed the board accusing them of refusing to meet the union and further demanding a total overhaul of the hospital management beginning with the disbandment of the board.

According to Dr. Oroko, the Kenyatta National Hospital is “dead.”

 

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Kenyatta National Hospital KMPDU Dr Ouma Oluga Dr. Benard Githae Dr. Oroko Obegi KNH CEO suspended Lily Koros KNH

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