Intern clinical
officers from all 47 counties have downed their tools citing unpaid dues.
As part of the country
wide strike, the officers participated in a peaceful demonstration in the
streets of Nairobi to express their frustrations.
‘3 billion shillings
has been set aside in the recent budget to pay intern clinical officers and
nurses yet clinical officers have not been given their dues . We were promised
that we would be paid after the approval of the 2015/2016 budget. We went to
the Ministry of Health but our efforts proved futile,’ laments Austin Ouma Vice
for President Registered Clinical Officers on Internship Forum.
An intern clinical
officer who identified himself as Amos Nasongo has complained that they work
under poor conditions.
‘We sometimes work from
morning till late hours. Our work is strenuous since clinical officers have to
attend to every patient. We give them prescriptions. We handle very many patients
and we risk getting infections like HIV and AIDS and sometimes Hepatitis B through
needle pricks. We are tired of these
frustrations,’ he adds.
The County
Representative for Nairobi Registered Clinical Officers on Internship Forum
Mary Ndwiga says that a colleague died from Hepatitis after coming into contact
with an infected patient.
‘We have no health
insurance schemes to cover us during the course of duty. Most of us interns
have toiled for almost a year under no pay,’ she adds amid chants from
protesters.
‘The government should
either pay us our dues immediately or issue us with working licenses. Otherwise
the strike continues,’ says Ouma.
The officers now seek audience with the Vice
President, Parliament and Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to resolve the issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment