Health Workers are enemies amongst themselves
This time round, we again find
ourselves amidst Nurses’ strike, which has left horrific agony in our Public
Hospitals, ostensibly due to the enormous tasks Nurses partake in the wards. In
a nutshell, they are the backbones of any hospital, truth be told.
As usual, the government, in its
unsurprising gimmick, has failed to notice the urgency of the moment and
address the many genuine issues presented to it by the Nurses but instead, in
this century and generation decided to sack people who are discriminated,
disgruntled, underpaid, overworked and most of all, in disharmony with certain
professional colleagues at work. What country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But I don’t want to delve into a
government which has disregarded its workers (Leaves me wondering how it wants
to fulfill vision 2030). I would like to say something about health workers who
have continued to disregard one another over the years. Amongst us, we have
categorized one another as medics or paramedics, curers or preventers, juniors
or seniors…….and forgotten the sole purpose for which we, with our different
professional trainings, are called to do: save human life.
I know many will agree with me
that divisions amongst health workers start early in college where some
students think they study prestigious health programmes like Medicine while the
others are just bystanders in the health sector. What do you say of a health
programme offered by two universities and the difference in the fees they offer
for the same is more than Kshs. 150,000? The graduates from these institutions
will never see themselves as equals in the field. These are some of the
pertinent issues we have failed look into.
We may be better trained and
vastly experienced but it takes character to realize that we are all health
care providers, from the Community Health Worker to the whos and whos in the
health sector. When the doctors went on strike, at last the government made
promises to them, some of which are yet to be fulfilled. Nurses are now threatened
with sack. Are other health workers ready to support them? Are we creating a
culture where every professional cadre wants to go it alone to agitate for its
rights in the streets? That today it is PHOs, tomorrow Lab Technologists and
the next day, Nutritionists?
As civil servants in the health
sector, health workers must decide to work together. They will have a bigger
voice with which to pressurize the government, not only to look into their
welfare, but also to improve the working conditions in health institutions. It
is logically provided that each of us has roles to play and mutual respect is
the way-forward. Our relationship has to be symbiotic if we really have to
successfully serve Kenyans. We all want to save life and prevent death.
Chrispory Juma Ombuya,
RTI/IRS,
Intern PHO, Homa Bay District.
