Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha on Wednesday, March 20, announced a change in the posting of medical interns.
Speaking during an interview, Nakhumicha revealed that the date has been pushed up from April 1 to today March 21.
"Based on the guidelines, I want to announce that we will start posting interns tomorrow. Please come and start picking your letter and after that, you can get your license and be employed in government and private sectors," she stated.
She explained that the decision was informed by the looming crisis in the health sector as doctors continue to stage their strike.
The CS emphasised that the Ministry was committed to resolving the crisis and asked the medics to join the discussion through the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU).
She asked KMPDU and representatives of other unions to avail themselves for a meeting today. However, Nakhumicha dismissed talks on remuneration adding that solely depends on the Salaries Remuneration Commission (SRC).
"We cannot speak about remuneration for interns, they should be learning. Remuneration is given to an employee by an employer- interns are not employees," she remarked.
During the interview, the CS explained that the Ministry was unable to avert the crisis due to disagreement. She revealed that one of the points of concern was the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Nakhumicha pointed out that these concerns have been raised since 2017 when she was yet to take over the docket.
"The 2017 CBA lapsed in 2021 and we have been in discussion until now to negotiate a new CBA. We have made progress in some issues but some are still pending," she added.
However, the CS threatened to sack all doctors who were participating in the strike. She remarked that the Ministry would employ other medics if the negotiation was unsuccessful.
Nakhumicha further revealed that she had been instructed by the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral & Research Hospital (KUTRRH) to recruit doctors, clinical officer interns and nursing interns.
"We will not allow a crisis to happen. We will recruit locum doctors- we have patients in ICUs, babies in neo-natal facilities and can't afford to have a gap," she revealed.
