The Ministry of Health has requested Sh4.9 billion from the National Treasury to absorb medical interns.
Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Susan Nakhumicha said currently the Ministry has no resources to absorb the interns adding that action shall be taken once the funds are available.
The CS said the demand by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) to post and pay the interns at Sh206,000 per month was untenable since the Ministry lacked the resources to foot the bill.
“In 2017 KMPDU signed a Common Bargaining Agreement (CBA) requiring interns to be paid Sh206,000 per month as salary and allowances. As a Ministry we don’t have the resources to post them and the law does not allow us to post when we don’t have a budget for it,” she said.
Nakhumicha asked the union which has issued a strike notice to push for the posting of the interns to be patient as the Ministry looks for ways of resolving the issue.
“The problem of posting interns is not new. It is not unique to this government, it is something that has been there and this calls for us to have a bigger discussion about health financing,” she said.
Proper health financing, she said, was critical in addressing all the pillars of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) among them the Human Resource pillar where the medical interns fall.
“I agree with the union that this is not just like any other internship because the interns work, they are on the front line and must be compensated but in a sustainable manner,” she said.
The Ministry, she added, was working on a policy to guide the deployment of the interns once they complete their training.
This, she said, was a long-term measure to ensure that the doctors don’t stay out for long before being absorbed after completing their training.
Speaking in Kisumu, the CS asked the doctors to reconsider the call to down their tools and pave the way for negotiations to resolve the impasse.
National Assembly Health Committee Chairman Dr Robert Pukose called for a holistic approach to addressing the interns’ issue.
The MP said training of doctors needs to be regulated to ensure that they don’t flood the market and add to the number of those looking for employment.
Medical training, he said, has turned out to be a huge business with universities churning out large numbers of trained doctors.
“We need to regulate this training and ensure that what we produce is in tandem with the needs of the market,” he said.
By Chris Mahandara
