![\"The](\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg\" "\\"Visit")
<\/a><\/p>\nDanielwesangula<\/p>\n
11 December 2011<\/p>\n
\n
Dr Shelmith Wafula sits pensively in a Nairobi restaurant following the doctors strike on Twitter.<\/p>\n
After getting the latest update from the organisers, she puts her phone down and recalls when a child died on her watch.<\/p>\n
It had been an unusually busy two days at the hospital, and she had been on her feet for 19 straight hours.<\/p>\n
“A group of four women rushed to the hospital. One of them held a small child in her arms. The child had breathing difficulties,” Dr Wafula said.<\/p>\n
She and the duty nurse were the only ones on duty that night at a provincial hospital. They tried to resuscitate the child but, halfway through the procedure, the oxygen ran out.<\/p>\n
“We tried mouth-to-mouth, but one can only do so much,” she said. “At the end of the day we lost a life that shouldn’t have been lost.”<\/p>\n
Such scenarios, she says, weigh heavily on the conscience. And they are especially bad if the death could have been prevented.<\/p>\n
“I have colleagues who border on a nervous breakdown after such events,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Wafula says the government is trying to trivialise matters by insisting that doctors are only after a pay rise.<\/p>\n
“There are a whole lot of issues that they have neglected,” she said.<\/p>\n
Just before she decided to enter medical school, Dr Wafula had her life planned out. In six years, she would be practising.<\/p>\n
In another few years she would be specialising, and two years after that, she would be living her dream. Years after her graduation, it all remains just that – a dream. The better life she looked forward to is yet to come despite the hours of toil she puts into her work.<\/p>\n
“Some people say the strike is unfair, that we should think of the patients first. But for how long will this go on,” the 32-year-old asked. “Most of us in the profession and in public facilities are operating out of the sheer love for the job and nothing else.”<\/p>\n
But, in their current working conditions, passion alone is not enough to see them through.<\/p>\n
“And that is why we have decided on industrial action,” she says.<\/p>\n
Ms Wafula’s area of specialisation is paediatric surgery.<\/p>\n
“I have always been fascinated by the fragility and the resilience of a child’s life. That is my passion. There is something almost divine about bringing a little one back together. This is, however, only helpful if you have the proper facilities,” she said.<\/p>\n
The absence of such facilities was the main reason she joined the strike.<\/p>\n
“Of what assistance will I be at the hospital if we do not have basic facilities like incubators, or anaesthesia or surgical gloves or oxygen? In such a situation even the greatest and most gifted among us will be reduced to mere spectators,” she told the Sunday Nation.<\/p>\n
She says doctors were highly exposed to infections, drugs, radiation and even assault from mentally unsound patients, but they did not enjoy any risk allowance like other public servants.<\/p>\n
“We offer services which we cannot dream of affording,” she said. Doctors have a medical allowance of Sh1,740 per month.<\/p>\n
Dr Oscar Obonyo knows too well about the neglect. He says he lost faith in the system a long time ago.<\/p>\n
“All you need to do is walk through the corridors of our public hospitals to know what’s really going on. Then talk to a doctor to understand why we are doing this. People want us to play god in their lives; the least they can do is ensure that we are rightly motivated to do so,” he said.<\/p>\n
For him, the remuneration is a major factor.<\/p>\n
“Our hospitals, especially those in rural areas, are severely understaffed. One way to look at it is that we are not training enough doctors. Another more detailed perspective is to look at the rate at which we haemorrhage the best among us to other sectors like NGOs both within and outside the country,” he says.<\/p>\n
Dr Obonyo insists doctors don’t go to South Africa because there’s more human suffering in those countries.<\/p>\n
“Money. Plain and simple. We are servicing education loans; we are providing for our siblings. We can’t fault those who are in search of a better life. One can only operate on passion for so long,” he said. He has been a government employee for two years. He thinks his time as a civil servant has come to an end.<\/p>\n
“Life has become unnecessarily hard. There is no point in prolonging suffering. Unless something comes out of this strike, I will look at other options,” he said.<\/p>\n
The doctor adds that he has friends who have split their already scarce time between hospital rounds and businesses to cushion themselves against low pay.<\/p>\n
“Guys are in everything- from owning M-Pesa shops, taxis and matatus to working part-time in private hospitals,” he said.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of their strike, doctors in public hospitals were demanding a new scheme of service that would see the gross salary of the lowest paid rise to Sh240,000 a month, up from the current Sh60,000.<\/p>\n
The highest-paid doctor — a medical specialist — would take home a gross salary of Sh520,000, up from the current Sh130,000.<\/p>\n
Dr Kiogora Gatimbu is the District Pharmacist in Isiolo. After his college, he interned at the Kenyatta National Hospital like many of his classmates.<\/p>\n
After his internship, he got his appointment letter. He was to report to Isiolo District Hospital. At the end of the month, just as he was preparing to relocate, he got a rude awakening when his house allowance was slashed by over 80 per cent.<\/p>\n
He didn’t mind, he knew the difference would be covered by the expected hardship allowance. He was shocked to see his hardship allowance stand at Sh600. “But what could I do. I had been sent to a vulnerable population. I had to go and serve,” he said.<\/p>\n
He says the posting threw him into a kind of financial shock. He had already made a number of financial commitments, and the reduction in his house allowance forced him to reconsider some of the decisions he had made.<\/p>\n
Despite these challenges, the doctors are still convinced they are in the right profession.<\/p>\n
Dr Obonyo says he is confident that the government will see sense and finally give the doctors the working conditions they deserve.<\/p>\n
“We want them to restore faith in public hospitals. We know we can give equal or better service as compared to private hospitals. Let them restore dignity to our profession,” he says.<\/p>\n
Today, operation Linda Afya is on its seventh day. Neither party is ready to bat an eyelid. On one hand doctors insist more needs to be done. On the other hand, the government says nothing more can be done.<\/p>\n
AllAfrica – All the Time<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n