Mombasa, KENYA: As the walls of the mighty Coast General provincial hospital stand tall in Mombasa, it has remained a shell with no patients visiting due to medics strike that has lasted for one month and a day.
A spot check by Baraka FM on Thursday, showed that the hospital has remained empty for lack of medical personnel who have joined their colleagues in different parts of the county for a mass national strike.
Coast General serves as a referral hospital that serves patients from the other five counties in the Coast region and also provides health services to patients between 7,000 to 10,000 a day.
Medics have remained adamant on resuming their duties until when their salary demands are met by the national government through the Ministry of Health.
Speaking to Baraka FM, Dr. Abidan Mwachi secretary general Coast branch Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union, said that the demands on salary increment of 300% as per the agreement in the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) must be met.
“CBA indicates salary increment, patient- doctor ratio, training of doctors among other things. Already the national government has already advertised our jobs to the public and we are waiting for them to employ new medics. National government will decide if we resume work or not”. Said Dr. Mwachi.
On Wednesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta met health officials and officials from doctor’s union in Mombasa’s statehouse over the continued strike, a meeting that lasted for over five hours but both parties did not come up with conclusive agreement over the matter.
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