Nurses Strike Enters Fourth Month As Patients Continue To Suffer

By Martha Etale

Patients in Kenya have been forced to seek medical services from private facilities following the four-months strike by the nurses.

The nurses went on strike in various counties to protest against inadequate insurance benefits and lack of protective gear while treating COVID-19 patients. The nurses say the government through the Ministry of Health has continued to ignore their plight even as they lead from the frontline in the fight against COVID-19.

At least 30 doctors, 26 nurses, and 10 clinical officers in Kenya have died after contracting the deadly virus. To date, more than 2,000 healthcare providers in Kenya have contracted COVID-19.

Talks between the Ministry of Health officials, the Council of Governors, and the nurses to have them go back to work have hit a dead end. Nurses have accused the governors of lacking goodwill during the talks.

The council of governors said it won’t pay the striking health workers. The nurses, on the other hand, have maintained that they will not call off their strike unless demands are met by both levels of the government.

As the push and pull between the nurses and the government go on, patients continue to suffer as the majority of public hospitals in counties such as Mombasa and Kisumu remain without nurses.

A recent case in Nyeri is looming after the referral hospital shut its intensive care unit (ICU) over equipment malfunction, the move is now exposing patients to greater danger because the only available facilities are in mission and private hospitals which are very costly.

Another case at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, where an expectant mother was forced to look for a private hospital for delivery “I had come to Mama Lucy when experiencing some pain and they have told me the doctors are on strike and if I were to give birth or had complications they would have attended to me, but if its normal pain they have asked me to look for another hospital or go to a private hospital,” Aoko the expectant mother said. 

Dependants of public hospitals for cheaper services eg the Cancer patients tend to suffer a lot since they are forced to depend mainly on the National Health Insurance Fund(NHIF} of which the insurance cover just locked out some cancer patients  Lately, patients seeking minor and major surgeries, diagnostic tests, chemotherapy and radiotherapy services have been forced to pay two-year premiums in advance as a pre-condition for the national insurer to foot their bills.

“I put in my request as usual but I got a response that it was declined. On enquiring, someone from NHIF Monday told me that I need to top up my premiums to cover up to 2022 which we did. The person then told us to go back to the doctor and get another pre-authorization request,” said Margret Waweru, a cancer patient who despite being a long-time contributor to NHIF has recently faced challenges in accessing treatment.

About the author

Etale Martha is a young and upcoming journalist with an interest in feature stories and anything that touches on society.