Kenya National Nurses Chairman Jeremiah Maina on Tuesday in Machakos said that the shortcomings that are experienced in the Health sector will come to an end only if the county governments will set aside enough money to the sector.
Maina who was speaking in an event of celebrating Nurses Week on Tuesday in Machakos also said that sufficient allocations of funds will help end frequent health workers’ strikes in the country.
The National Nurses Week is an annual celebration that begins in May 6 (National Nurses Day) and concludes in May 12 which is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
Since the devolution of Health sector in the past two years, Health workers’ strikes have been rampant in the country with them complaining of delayed salaries and poor working conditions.
It is during this two years when Lamu based Doctors resigned leaving the county without any professional Doctor in the public Health sector.
Maina has also urged county governments to avoid relocating funds set for health sector to other functions noting that health is a great consumer of funds.
“County governments must realise that health is a great consumer, we must try to budget and the money made for health should not be re-channeled to do other things,” warned Maina.
The call comes barely a week after Machakos County governor Dr. Alfred Mutua asked nurses who cannot wait for up to five days if their salaries are delayed to leave the county and seek employment elsewhere.