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Nurses in Taita-Taveta County have issued a one week strike notice over a raft of complaints, chief among them being poor working conditions and lack of clear guidelines on remuneration and promotions.
The nurses who number about three hundred, lamented that working conditions have continued to deteriorate since they were moved from the national government to the county government, which they are accusing of failure to address their problems.
Addressing the Press at the Moi County Referral hospital in Voi today, the nurses led by the county secretary of the Kenya National Union of Nurses Mr Boniface Mrashui, warned that patients should brace themselves for the worst once the deadline elapses without the county government addressing their grievances.
“By 21 of this month, patients should be prepared for any eventuality when services become paralysed in all public hospitals in the county,” warned Mrashui.
The union official pointed that most nurses were being overworked and fatigued due to a looming shortage of nurses, a situation he said could lead to poor service delivery.
“The county requires at least 700 nurses to effectively deliver services, compared to the current 300.This is a serious shortfall that the county government has failed to address,” said Mrashui.
He revealed that most hospitals were facing drug shortages while ambulances being used to ferry patients were substandard and not fully equipped.
“A the moment Moi Hospital in Voi which is the only referral hospital in the county handling a large number of patients, has an old theatre which cannot serve patients well”, he said.
On promotions, the union official pointed out that some nurses had remained in the same job group for almost ten years, cutting across both the national and county governments.
Other grievances the nurses want the county government to address urgently include failure to provide personal numbers to some of the nurses, payment of hardship, transfer and escort allowances.
Mrashui cited a case where one nurse was involved in an accident while transferring a patient from one health facility to another but was never compensated for the loss.
He also lamented about lack of a clear transitional procedures from national to county government which e said had affected issues of remuneration and promotion of nurses.
“By 21 of this month, patients should be prepared for any eventuality when services become paralysed in all public hospitals in the county,”-Mrashui.