Uasin Gishu county-run health facilities may soon experience an acute shortage of nurses, following massive exit of the cadre for greener pastures abroad.
Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Uasin Gishu branch secretary Kleen Mutai has revealed that about 120 out of 500 nurses working in the county-run hospitals have since sought better opportunities overseas in the past three years.
The majority of these nurses according to Mutai have migrated to the United States of America, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Finland among other European countries.
“The hardest hit health facilities by this exodus of well-trained and skilled health care service providers include levels three and four hospitals”, said the secretary, during a press briefing in Eldoret.
Mutai attributed the move by the majority of the nurses to go abroad to poor remuneration, lack of proper career progression, understaffing in public health facilities and a general poor working environment.
“Those exiting from the level three and four hospitals are those aged between 30 and 45 years,” he added.
The unionists regretted that most of the medics who had undergone specialized training in critical areas of health like the Intensive care unit, had left the country in search of better-paying jobs abroad, causing a huge shortage of staff in the 171 county health facilities.
“The number of nurses exiting the county-run hospitals to seek greener pastures overseas is increasing at an alarming rate due to the high pay hospitals abroad offer compared to what they are earning in the country,” said Mutai.
The unionist is now asking the county government of Uasin Gishu to allocate more funds to the health sector that will help in the hiring of more nurses, warning that the current shortage of nurses in the health facilities will continue to get worse as more of them exist the country.
The KNUN secretary further expressed concern over the low nurse-to-patient ratio especially in level two public hospitals in far-flung areas of the expansive county saying that a single dispensary was being manned by one health practitioner and yet the people seeking medical services at the facility were nearly 30.
“You will find that when the nurse in charge of the said dispensary is sick for a week the facility remains closed, until he/ she reports back to duty causing inconvenience to those seeking services at the hospital,” noted Mutai.
“The governor Jonathan Bii led administration needs to move with speed and address the acute shortage of nurses, prevailing in the local public hospitals, so as to bridge the patient ratio,” added Mutai.
By Kiptanui Cherono
Source-https://nairobireview.africa/
