Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital. 70% of its nurses are aged hence less productive. (Photo: thestar.co.ke)
Medical practitioners among other stakeholders in Kisumu County have raised concern over the increasing numbers of aged medical officers who are still practicing.
Dr. Juliana Otieno, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) said over 70 percent of nurses at hospital are over 55 years and this was not good considering that most of them are old enough and so were not keen to learn new tricks through training.
Dr. Otieno was precise and concise stating that JOOTRH should not be used as the dumping ground for non-performers in terms of health services after such people were transferred there as the last option over the last few years.
She also conceded to the revelation that indeed the referral health facility also lacked specialized Human Resource (HR) unit that could be relied upon to reorganize the staffing levels for greater impact.
However, speaking at a health forum at a Kisumu hotel on Friday, Prof. Khama Rogo advised the CEO to issue termination letters to all consultant doctors (specialists) at the facility who offered quality services in private hospitals but ironically failed to deliver at JOOTRH.
Prof. Rogo said the devolved units (counties) should start engaging consultants on the basis of permanent terms as is the practice currently in Kenya since it has been established that their focus and eyes were strained on the private sector.
It emerged that some of the 62 medical consultants in Kisumu alone are reportedly stuck in two lower Job Groups like ‘P’ or ‘Q’ which was quite de-motivating.
Doctors argued that there is a big problem in terms of proper job placements in the county.
In also came to the fore during the forum that some doctors in Kisumu County have not been promoted for over 6 years since they have not undergone Senior Management Course (SMC) training and so retention of such medics has proved difficult as they lack motivation in terms of promotions
More shocking was Dr. Rogo’s revelation that the only Masters training available in emergency Medicine is at Maseno University in the whole of East and Central Africa with only two people undergoing the training at the University. Both are from Bungoma County.