Medics in Mombasa County joined other doctors countrywide in a strike after the government failed to meet their demands.
Speaking in a press briefing in Mombasa, the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMDU), Coast Branch Secretary General, Ghalib Salim, said that patients seeking medical services at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital and all other public health facilities in the County are now to visit private hospitals for treatment.
Salim said the move is as a result of a countrywide strike after the Ministry of Health failed to settle their grievances, despite having held dialogue with them for almost two years.
Dr. Salim reaffirmed their stance that they will not resume work not unless all their grievances are addressed.
He noted that only patients in the Intensive Care Unit and those with emergency cases will receive minimal care.
Dr. Salim said medical interns are the backbone of a hospital, urging the government to deploy them and help relieve some of the backlog faced at hospitals.
At the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital in Mombasa, KNA observed patients leaving the Hospital after being discharged with outpatient hospital also going back home after failing to get medical services.
Doctors insisted that they will not resume their duties unless their grievances are addressed.
“We lack basic services including good medical cover. We offer these services but we and our families cannot get the same. As doctors we have decided that it is high time we opt for these extreme measures for our issues to be addressed,” he said.
At the same time Salim called upon the County governments from the six coastal counties, to consider employment terms of their doctors, who have served in the same position for over three years on contract.
By Chari Suche
