Kenyan doctors stop providing emergency services at hospitals

Nairobi: Kenyan doctors stopped providing emergency services at public hospitals on Thursday, as they escalated a national strike that entered its second week.

Thousands of doctors have stayed away from hospitals since last Thursday over poor pay and

working conditions, despite a court order calling for talks between the doctors and the Health Ministry.

Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union Secretary-General Dr Davji Bhimji said the doctors escalated the

strike and stopped providing bare minimum services because the government had shown no efforts to resolve the labour dispute.

“In the morning, we managed to close the emergency services that were being offered at the Kenyatta national referral hospital,” he told journalists on Wednesday.

Health Minister Susan Nakhumicha on Wednesday told local television station KTN that she had instructed two top referral hospitals to recruit doctors

to replace those taking part in the national strike.

“We will not allow a crisis to happen We cannot afford to have a gap,” she said, adding that doctors were offered temporary replacements starting Wednesday night.

An Associated Press journalist confirmed on Thursday morning that emergency services at the Kenyatta national referral hospital in the capital, Nairobi, had resumed.

The ministry is due on Thursday to issue letters to 1,000 medical interns who will be posted in various hospitals across the country.