“As a professional body which monitors the supply of drugs and other medical commodities, we may not continue to supply them since the relevant professionals to us them are not at work,” he said/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 23 – The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya has threatened to stop the supply of drugs to public and private hospitals by January 3, 2017 if the doctors’ strike won’t have been resolved.
The Society’s President Paul Mwaniki expressed fear that unqualified people might be handling drugs in hospitals due to the absence of doctors who are still on strike.
“As a professional body which monitors the supply of drugs and other medical commodities, we may not continue to supply them since the relevant professionals to us them are not at work,” he said.
He indicated that the withdrawal will be for the safety of all Kenyans.
“For the safety of those products and for the safety of Kenyans, as the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, we are urging our members who supply all these commodities to the public and to both public and private hospitals to withdraw them because this is sending poisons to be handled by people who are not competent,” he said.
Mwaniki has further called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and end the industrial action that has paralysed health services in all public hospitals.
“The President of this country has not said anything significant so far about this strike. In my own opinion, I think the people advising the President are misleading him. The Head of State should consult people like us to give him the reality of what is happening,” he said.
In the meantime, doctors dug in their heels as the strike in public hospitals entered day 19.
The doctors’ Union Secretary General Ouma Oluga told Capital FM News that medics will not be intimidated neither will they relent in their quest for better pay and improved working conditions.
“We are still on strike. We shall not bow down to threats and other tactics to weaken us. Doctors know their rights and we will not give an inch,” he said.
The union is demanding a 300 percent pay increase for doctors but the government offered a Sh50,000 increase to the lowest paid medics.
The union rejected the offer and stated that the strike shall only be called off by the implementation of the collective bargaining agreement signed in 2013.
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