Susan Nakhumicha Wafula, the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Health, announced on Thursday, April 20, that her Ministry was on the verge of forming the Kenya Health Human Resource Advisory Council to help transform the sector.
According to Nakhumicha, the board - once unveiled -will be mandated with advising President William Ruto and the ministry on how to deal with medical practitioners.
"We are operationalising something called the Kenya Health Human Resource Advisory Council to advise the ministry and the president on how we deal with the health workers across the country.
“There must be some form of harmonisation in terms of how we deal with them. Also, there must be some form of management of their welfare besides the counties doing what they are doing,” she disclosed.
The CS added that the new board would aid in the hiring of healthcare workers depending on the disease burden.
“Also, it will be able to assist us in terms of placement for specialists, especially those who are very scarce.
“Then we will look at the disease burden and post the specialists,” continued Nakhumicha.
Moreover, she pleaded with the striking doctors to understand the current economic situation in the country.
“The health workers and the doctors are not foreigners in this country, they live here. His Excellency the President has said as a country, we are in a bad state in terms of the economy.
“So, it is for them to allow discussions to continue and for the president to steer the country towards economic development so that some of these issues can be taken care of,” she concluded.
The development came at a time when doctors in some counties threatened to down their tools until their demands, which included pay increases, are met.
Earlier this week, medics in counties such as Kisumu, Bomet and Nyamira counties went on a go-slow after the relevant authorities failed to pay their March salaries.
