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I must say that I am proud of KMPDU and especially it's leaders. You have stood up and articulated issues affecting public health care in a brilliant manner. You are true patriots for without people like you this countries health can not change for the better.

Some of us have been agonising about quiting the public service but it is only in the public service that you can make a difference in the lives of people who most need our knowledge and skills - the lady from Turkana with a huge Goitre, the patient from kakamega with gallstones that have made her life hell for three years, the lady from pokot with VVF,intestinal obstruction,peritonitis... the list is endless. I get the most satisfaction treating these poor kenyans with curable diseases but can never access private healthcare. It is only in public service that you can participate in teaching and training future generations of doctors and other health care workers. It is only in public service that you can participate in formulating health policies, research and programmes for all Kenyans including those who exclusively go to private health facilities.Therefore it is only in public service that you can make the biggest difference in the lives of Kenyans.

If resigned I could sit in my clinic and see many patients with common cold,neurosis and other minor illness but they have insurance cover or money. There would be very few suffering from the complex conditions I trained for so many years to manage. Of course I would make money but I could never be satisfied. I could also choose to become a business man and I have no doubt in my mind that I can be very successful but then why did I waste all those years. I could go and practice my trade in another country and the people of that country will no doubt benefit immensely but what about my brothers and sisters in my own country who really need my services but their government is ran by incompetent and uncaring people.

Yes, I think the government is ran by incompetent and uncaring people. These people have systematically ran down the public health care system. They have forced brilliant young doctors to resign from public service due to their myopic and highhanded handling of issues. I have heard many allegetions of corruption.

They now refuse to address critical issues raised by a lawful and competent doctors union. They are busy looking for ways of scuttling the strike rather than coming onto the table and negotiate in good faith. They are using doctors who do not do much work on any normal day to hoodwink the public that doctors are working and there are only a few uncaring, unethical noisemakers in the streets. The other health workers can not do the work doctors are trained to do. They have been playing games with the health and lives of kenyans for to long and now their skills are in the public domain for all to see.

My humble opinion is that the DMS should resign and his replacement should be vetted through a public process. Better still we must have in place a competent, corrupt free, adequately funded National Health Commission.

To all those who have stood by the people of Kenya for so many years working under extremely difficult circumstances I salute you. You are the true heroes of this country. To the people of Kenya who have suffered for so long under an uncaring government, thank you for your patience.This is the time to stand for your right to good health care. You pay taxes and your taxes must serve you. You must get competent,caring, corrupt free Kenyans to take care of you.Stand with your doctors and KMPDU.

This is our country and this is the time for CHANGE.

please read this post and know the truth on the strike

http://www.wazua.com/for...=244390&#post244390

Our Politicians are only interested in lining their pockets. The much touted National Health Insurance would result with all Kenyans having no option but to be attended at the pathetic Hospitals. The government would also be deciding how much a doctor should earn as all payments would be made through government.

@kamundu, i support what you are fighting for. Bt, there is something am yet to understand in regard to demanding 15% of the budget (even if it is abuja resolutions). The budget this year was the biggest kenya has ever
had, amounting to almost a trillion shillings. Previously, the budgets were much smaller, hence the higher percentages in allocations to the health ministry. This year, the allocation to the ministry was 64billion while in
2010 it was 41billion and 40 billion in 2009. This translates to 7% for 2009, 6.5% in 2010 and 5.4% in 2011. However, there was a 56% increase in the 2011 allocation relative to the 2010 allocation. So even though the
percentage to the entiire budget declined by 1.1%, there was a 56% increase from the previous year. Without uusing the percentages, what is the estimate of the money that would be sufficient for the health ministry?

While the doctors’ strike has paralysed services in the public sector, the biggest beneficiary of the strike so far has been the private health sector occasioning great suffering to the ordinary citizen.
Allow me to “Mulika the Mwizi” that is the private health sector in Kenya.
The private health sector is dominated by four or five hospitals, all of which are registered as charities which means they do not remit any taxes to the exchequer. Over the years profits (or surpluses) for these hospitals have grown exponentially and unchecked. Over the same period of time health insurance premiums have become unaffordable to many and healthcare costs are now one of the biggest HR expenditures for many companies. A one big private telecommunications company for example has limited the type of health services its employees can access under its medical cover. In another company – one of the largest and most profitable banks in town – the health policy dictates that the employees pay upfront for medical care and seek for refunds afterwards beating the whole purpose of a medical scheme especially in cases of emergency. Although a few will argue that the draconian changes implemented by these two companies in their medical schemes are as a result of abuse of the health covers by employees; excessive bills charged by the private hospitals are largely to blame for the unaffordable healthcare.
Conspiracy between the Ministry of health – which benchmarks doctors’ salaries – and the private health care providers have seen doctor’s salaries fall in these private establishments over the last five years notwithstanding the high inflation rate and increased cost of living. The starting salary for doctor five years ago was 120,000 shillings in one of the leading private hospitals. Today the same hospital pays doctors a starting salary of 70,000 shillings. Within the same period that has seen a decline on doctors’ earnings, consultation fees and costs for other services have more than tripled.
Additionally, many of the board members of these private hospitals hold positions at the medical board and the ministries and will swiftly deregister and sack junior doctors who question the status quo. That is the nexus that is driving junior doctors to the wall and also crippling health care in the country.