Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has announced that the Ministry will immediately post at least 552 medical interns, thanks to allocated funds. In a recent statement, Nakhumicha assured that additional interns would be posted as more resources become available.
“The court case notwithstanding, the parties agreed to continue pursuing a consensus position within 60 days that ended on July 7, as a means of unlocking the stalemate out of court,” Nakhumicha stated. She highlighted that numerous meetings have been held with significant progress towards consensus, with both parties agreeing on the urgent need to post interns without further delay.
Options discussed included posting all doctor interns at the recommended SRC stipend rate of KES 70,000 per month, awaiting the court’s direction on September 26, 2024, using funds from the 2024/2025 financial year budget, or posting interns in batches according to the CBA rates while continuing discussions to find additional resources.
Following 56 days of industrial unrest, a Return-to-Work Formula agreement was signed on May 8, 2024. Currently, 3,760 interns await posting across various cadres, requiring a total budget of KES 4.8 billion. However, the Ministry received an allocation of KES 3.7 billion for internships in the Financial Year 2024/2025 due to budget constraints.
Nakhumicha empathized with the young doctors who have faced psychological and financial hardships due to delayed postings, reassuring the public that ongoing discussions with the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) will resolve the impasse and ensure the young doctors’ careers are back on track.
“The exponential increase in training institutions and foreign-trained graduates has overwhelmed available financial resources, resulting in a significant backlog of graduates awaiting internship postings,” she said. This backlog has led to recurrent industrial actions over the past decade.
The Ministry has posted 4,156 interns across six cadres since January 2023, including 1,735 doctors, 874 nurses, 506-degree clinical officers, and 1,930 diploma clinical officers, at a total cost of KES 4.2 billion. These interns are expected to complete their internships by June 2024.
Nakhumicha advised all interns to report to their internship centers as communicated earlier, pending the resolution of the package. She acknowledged the interns camped at Afya House, respecting their constitutional right to demonstrate but regretted that some individuals are using the situation to paint a picture of inaction and incompetence against the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry is optimistic that the recently gazetted presidential task force will provide recommendations to permanently address internship issues. “We are hopeful that the task force will come up with permanent solutions to the long-standing issues on human resources for health,” Nakhumicha concluded.