The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers has threatened to go on strike next month if the government does not send home the board of the Social Health Authority.
The strike notice issued on November 29 makes this the second medical union to threaten this week.
According to KUCO they will withdraw their services starting December 23, over what they term as discrimination in the rollout of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), which is now rebranded to Taifa Care.
KUCO claims that the top officials from the authority are to blame for the current crisis that has affected over six million Kenyans.
“We shall down tools on the 23rd of December if the board does not rescind its decision, and we shall be holding demonstrations every Monday to protest this discrimination. The President has promised that the Universal Health Cover should work, but this can’t work in the manner that the Social Health Authority is carrying out the rollout.”
KUCO National Chairperson Peterson Wachira further noted that the new SHA board had blocked clinicians from the list of service providers, yet they operate over 1,000 private facilities in the country.
The union is said to have over 30,000 members with duties ranging from administrative to performing clinical evaluations of patients.
Wachira further warned that the health sector could collapse due to poor management by senior officers from SHA who had introduced a new funding model.
Their strike threat comes a day after the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union called on all intern doctors to withdraw their services over job frustrations, further threatening to demonstrate in December.
