Health sector workers emerged as some of the biggest winners in the proposals by the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force report.
The BBI report called for the establishment of a Health Service Commission (HSC).
“Kenya needs far better healthcare if this country is to be productive and prosperous. Paying for healthcare eats into family savings and prompts rash sales of land, which sometimes lead to future conflict,” the report reads.
BBI report proposes transferring the human resourcing element — the hiring, firing and promotion functions — to the HSC, which would ideally end the squabbles doctors have had with county governments.
But the report still wants the health function devolved to the counties but with funds following functions.
Since the advent of the 2010 Constitution, health workers — nurses, clinical and medical officers — have stage endless strikes over poor working conditions and salaries.
The government has been accused of hastily devolving the healthcare function to the counties and holding onto some of the budgetary allocations.
The proposals are a big win for doctors, nurses, clinical officers and other health workers.
But the proposals could run into trouble with governors who have been opposed to any attempt to move the health docket from counties.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) said the health sector needs a commission just like their counterparts in the teaching profession.
While advocating for the formation of HSC last year, KMPDU secretary-general, Dr Ouma Oluga, told the Senate Health Committee that the body would help in addressing various issues the workers face and also avert unnecessary strikes emanating from minor strikes.
Kenya National Union of Nurses has also been pushing for the establishment of the commission.
The union had argued that since the Constitution failed to deal with human resources for health sector, workers in the sector had been left at the mercy of governors, some who are mainly handpicked by County Public Service Boards and Chief Officers of health in the counties.
