Friday, November 20, 2020 – Doctors have raised concerns after it emerged that those that have contracted the deadly covid-19 are being forced to continue treating patients due to the rising Covid-19 cases in the country and a shortage of health care workers.
According to the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, hospitals are requiring doctors that are asymptomatic to continue working despite the risk of infecting patients.
The union officials disclosed this information while appearing before the Senate Health Committee yesterday.
“With a shortage of health workers in Kenya, doctors who tested positive for coronavirus still attend to patients since the number of those who are severely ill has gone up.”
“If doctors get the virus and show no symptoms, they are still made to work.”
“Only those with symptoms or are severely ill are excluded from duty.”
“We’re putting our lives and those of patients at risk.”
“We’re stretched,” the union’s secretary-general Chibanzi Mwachonda stated.
Nominated senator Beth Mugo, a member of the committee, argued that doctors who tested positive needed to go on a 14-day self-isolation break.
However, Mwachonda maintained that the country was facing a shortage of health workers and that more needed to be employed.
“The workforce is stressed and stretched.”
“They are wounded and demotivated and this is part of the reason we issued a 21-day strike notice,” he stated.
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