The Elgeyo Marakwet County government has moved with speed to forestall suffering of patients at the Iten County Referral Hospital (ICRH) after it caved in to demands to hire 45 nurses following a strike called on Monday by the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN).
Following a day-long meeting between the union and the county government, the Knun executive secretary Elgeyo Marakwet branch Benson Biwott called on the striking nurses to resume duties saying they had fruitful discussions.
Addressing the press in Iten, Biwott who was accompanied by the CEC health Michael Kibiwott said they had agreed that the 45 nurses would be hired and deployed at ICRH saying though they didn’t get the 100 they were demanding, the county government had shown that they were willing to address their concerns.
The unionist said they had also signed a return to work formula saying no nurse will be penalised for participating in the industrial action.
He added that he was aware that other facilities were also facing an acute shortage of nurses, something which they discussed with the authorities.
The CEC said due to constraints following reduced allocation to the county by the national treasury, the county government would have wished to hire more nurses and so appealed to them to accept the 45 saying they would progressively increase the number to the required capacity.
Kibiwott said the county was aware of the fact that health was not just brick and mortar but it also involves human resource and therefore the need to hire more staff.
The nurses had gone on strike on Monday to demand for hiring of more nurses saying the workload at the ICRH was too much leading to exhaustion.
According to Biwott, the hospital was currently being served by 85 nurses yet it required 300 but they were demanding for the hiring of at least 100 nurses for now.
By Alice Wanjiru
