Thursday, November 28, 2024 - Former staff members of the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) have been handed a lifeline in regard to their employment status.
This is after acting Social
Health Authority (SHA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Ingasira announced
that the former NHIF employees will be onboarded to SHA for the next six months
as the authority gets its house in order.
This comes after growing
discontent amongst the 1,700 NHIF employees who mulled over the
uncertainty of their futures amidst the transition into the Social Health
Insurance Fund.
The employees claimed that their
interests should be looked after even as the government moved to the new health
funding model.
In an anonymous interview, an
employee revealed that a majority of NHIF employees are currently experiencing
anxiety, fear, and uncertainty due to the situation.
SHA had initially promised to
integrate them into the new structure, but recent developments indicated that
the new health authority will only retain a limited number of employees and has
imposed stringent conditions for their selection.
However, Ingasira has now moved
to reassure the NHIF staff about their futures for at least the next
six months.
According to the transitional
clauses, the NHIF staff were accorded three options: To apply for SHA jobs, to
be deployed into other government entities through the Public Service
Commission (PSC) and early voluntary retirement.
“After six months, at that
stage, those who will be interested in exercising the option to retire will now
be given the opportunity to do so. Retirement is voluntary and will be
subjected to other regulations, ” he added.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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