The Mountain Journal
editor@themountainjournal.co.ke
Health cabinet secretary Aden Duale is now putting on notice doctors keen on earning low cum during the official working hours
Duale outlawed the low cum of between , between 8 – 5 PM, describing the habit as a major fraud, regretting that the scenario has been rampant among the doctors working in public health facilities.
“ They opt to send patients to private facilities they operate thus denying the facilities that pay them revenue,” said the CS.
Duale, who was in Tharaka Nithi under the invitation of governor Muthomi Njuki to commission a new ultra – modern Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a new amenity wing for the Chuka Level Five Hospital.
The ICU commissioned by CS Duale in Tharaka Nithi is a first of its kind in the region and the initial phase has a 5 – bed capacity and two isolation units for the critically ill.
The amenity ward commissioned will welcome patients seeking services akin to what they would receive at private rooms in private hospitals.
“ In January, new measures will be introduced to punish doctors found working elsewhere within the working hours, especially when they are attached to certain facilities,” he said..
He detailed at Kenyatta National Hospital with 26 theatres with top notch doctors, the patients are placed on reviews and theatre dates that are two months away.
The CS has also directed the Digital Health Authority to take stern action, from January, of any claim made by a doctor registered to a public facility yet claims from a private facility within the working hours.
The CS demanded accountability from the doctors while placing their unions on notice that the continued practice will no longer be tolerated.
Muthomi accused the Gen Z doctors whom he said are extremely ambitious, but want many jobs to make more money.
He accused some doctors of using the public facilities as a retention ground, one they are using to get patients for their facilities.
Governor Njuki said in some cases, the facilities at the county level are better equipped than the ones the doctors are sending the patients to but since there is a monetary drive, they would deny the government facilities resources.
