Kenya’s Health Workers, Unprotected and Falling Ill, Walk Off Job


Kenya’s Health Workers, Unprotected and Falling Ill, Walk Off Job

NAIROBI, Kenya — Doctors in public hospitals say they have not been paid, some for as long as six months. They’re furious that they’ve been given faulty protective gear, or none at all. Hundreds of government health workers have fallen sick with the coronavirus, and yet many say their medical insurance was cut in July, just when hospitals became overwhelmed with cases.

The situation in Kenya’s public hospitals is so dire that thousands of doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians in at least three counties walked off the job this month. On Friday, they were joined by more than 300 doctors working in 20 public facilities in Nairobi, the country’s capital, and thousands more across the country are threatening to strike in September if their demands are not met.

The crisis comes as infections are surging, particularly in cities like Nairobi, and intensive care units in hospitals are filling up with coronavirus patients. The pandemic is now straining medical workers to the breaking point in a country known for having one of the better health care systems in Africa, experts say.

“Doctors are not martyrs,” Thuranira Kaugiria, secretary-general of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, said in an interview — a line he has since adopted as a hashtag. “Doctors are not children of a lesser God.”

“There’s a false sense of protection,” he said.

The crippling effects of the walkout are apparent in Homa Bay county, where for 18 days now, 64 doctors and more than 4,000 health workers have been on strike, said Dr. Kevin Osuri Jr., a union official who works at Rangwe Sub-District Hospital, a public facility.

The coronavirus isolation centers in the county have been “abandoned,” he said, and patients who test positive are being sent home. The government has yet to call for a meeting with the doctors, Dr. Osuri said.

Kenya’s government was initially lauded for initiating mitigation efforts to curb the virus. But health officials say coordination between the national government and counties isn’t effective, with smaller hospitals left to fend for themselves.

“The ministry of health is like a mother that cut its cord with the counties,” said Dr. Rowena Njeri, a medical superintendent at a hospital in Murang’a County, north of Nairobi.

Dr. Njeri said authorities in Nairobi sent her permeable coveralls, which she only discovered while training health workers on how to use them.

“I felt fear for our health workers,” said Dr. Njeri, who manages 17 health centers and dispensaries with only two regularly-assigned doctors. “There was a sense of doom and uncertainty.”

Kenyan doctors recently launched a campaign to commemorate the life of Dr. Doreen Adisa Lugaliki, the first Kenyan doctor to die of Covid-19.

Dr. Yubrine Moraa Gachemba, an internist and health advocate, said that even though she works at Nairobi Hospital, one of Kenya’s top private hospitals, all doctors are afraid.

“The army that’s fighting the pandemic in Kenya is currently demoralized,” said Dr. Gachemba.




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