Emergency departments are operating with skeleton crews, maternity wards are struggling to deliver basic care, and laboratory services are facing critical delays as the 17 different medical cadres maintain their protest over unfulfilled promises of permanent employment and unpaid gratuity.
County governments, watching their healthcare systems crumble, have responded with an ultimatum: return to work or face dismissal. Universal Health Care (UHC) workers are receiving a flurry of show-cause letters as county officials escalate pressure through formal disciplinary proceedings.
"The Department of Health Services has noted with concern that many healthcare workers, particularly those engaged on UHC contracts, have abandoned their duty stations in the recent past," states Dr Betty Langat, Kericho county's health director, in an official memo obtained by the news blog. "This has resulted in unprecedented, yet avoidable delays in our various facilities to the detriment of our clients."
The comprehensive UHC workforce includes direct patient care providers like doctors, nurses, clinical officers, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, dentists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nutrition officers, and public health officers. But there are other critical support staff like managers, ambulance drivers, and accountants whose absence compounds operational challenges.
In Kirinyaga County, facility managers are issuing individual ultimatums to striking workers. Margaret Ndinwa, facility-in-charge at Difathas Health Centre, warned one UHC nurse that her "prolonged absence has caused significant disruption of services at the facility, thereby affecting service delivery to the community."
"This conduct constitutes negligence of duty, which is a serious breach of your responsibilities as a health worker," Ndinwa stated in a show-cause letter, demanding written explanations and threatening disciplinary action by month's end.
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