Saturday, December 10, 2011

Six years in school and Sh40,000 pay check: The sorry story of our doctors



By Luke Anami and Ally Jamah
More workers are expected to go on strike to protest at the high cost of living.
The revelation comes at a time the country is experiencing the worst industrial unrest since independence.
Poor remuneration coupled with high food prices has pushed workers to the wall.
Hardly a day goes without various professionals raising their voice against poor pay.
At the beginning of the year it was the Kenya Airways employees. Soon other professionals joined the fray.
Kenya Power workers were at it last month threatening to throw the country into darkness.
Next aviation workers were breathing fire when it was revealed they have never had a salary review for more than ten years. Then civil servants followed suit.
Last month, it was the teachers’ turn and now it is doctors.
As doctors’ strike enters the fifth day, the big question is, just what is ailing the medical profession?
"The new Constitution entrenches each individual’s right for fair remuneration. Looking at the training required to be a doctor, let alone a specialist, and the extraneous nature of a doctor’s duties, it is clear that the Kenyan doctor is grossly underpaid," says Dr Boniface Chitayi, Secretary General Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU).
Grinding poverty
If bright students in primary or secondary are asked what they plan to be in future, most are likely to answer a doctor.
But the doctors’ strike has revealed that the profession may not be a bed of roses as many are led to believe, especially in public health facilities where salaries are not commensurate with duties and qualification.
"Most people imagine doctors have a lot of money. But the reality is that those of us in public hospitals are among the poor. Some of the doctors are even living in servants’ quarters," said Dr Victor Ng’ani.
Dr Karithia Ocampo, a registrar at Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Kenyatta National Hospital, said doctors go through painstaking training for six years to save lives only to enter the workforce with a salary of around Sh40,000 after taxes.
"It is a shame that doctors in Kenya are not taken seriously by the Government. It is expensive and time consuming to train them but their skills are not valued at all," he said.
A medical doctor earns a paltry Sh40, 000 per month compared to their counterparts who earn more than Sh200,000 in Namibia and Botswana.
A junior Government doctor in Kenya earns about $50 a week, which is more than $2 (Sh90) a day that most of the population lives on but not enough to sustain the type of life that many doctors dreamed of in medical school. Even senior doctors at public hospitals cannot look forward to a lavish existence.
At the most they earn about $100 a week.
Ng’ani revealed that many doctors no longer recommend their children to pursue medicine since practice, especially in public hospitals, has become frustrating.
"We have seen students from poor backgrounds imagining that once they study medicine and become doctors, they can lift themselves and their families out of grinding poverty. But often they realise that they cannot even afford to fend for themselves," Ng’ani said. "I would rather my son did engineering, law or architecture. Their salaries can pay several doctors working in public health facilities. It is a shame."
Dr Wambui Waithaka from Nyeri County expressed frustration that doctors in public hospitals cannot even afford the medical services they offer to the public since their medical allowance is only Sh1, 500 per month.
Dr Chitayi recommends that the least pay for a doctor (intern) should be begged at Sh214,000 gross income. "KMPDU recommends the following as the gross pay for the various cadres of doctors in the country.
Intermediate level doctors (medical officers) should earn a gross income of Sh285,000 per month while specialists should earn Sh428,000 day one out of school."
Kenya is said to have approximately 8,000 doctors but faces a shortage of 32,000 doctors according to figures presented by KMPDU. Nurses working at the civil service are estimated at 17,000 yet there is a shortage of 40,000 of them.
Road accidents
Kenya has one doctor for every 7,000 people, about average for Africa but far from adequate. With malaria, tuberculosis and Aids raging, there are enough patients to keep hundreds of additional doctors working around the clock.
Yet Kenya’s doctors are packing up in their numbers and relocating to places as South Africa and Botswana, where they can earn many times the salary that the Government offers.
"There is gross shortage of personnel ranging all the way from specialists to cleaning staff. For instance patients suffering from operational head injury in road traffic accidents are referred from the city of Kisumu to Nairobi for surgery because there is nowhere else to find a neurosurgeon," Dr Chitayi explained.
At Government hospitals, doctors want what doctors want everywhere: work coats, plastic gloves, pharmaceuticals, oxygen, working equipment... but they also want to earn more than a taxi driver.
"Equipment for basic yet lifesaving procedures remain absent, inaccessible or rundown. For example, dialysis machines exist in only four towns and total 24 in number. Compare this with the more than 4,000 kidney failure patients who require dialysis three times a week," the union secretary general explained.
Existing hospitals must be graded in terms of staff, equipment, medication and infrastructure.
"In addition, at a total cost of approximately Sh37.6 billion, just slightly more than the cost of the Thika Super highway, 47 new state of the art hospitals should be built, one in each county, perhaps two in the most expansive county.
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