Kenyan Patients Suffer As Doctors' Strike Grinds On

Kiambu, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Apr, 2024) Desperate to have her five-month-old daughter treated for a skin infection in Kenya, Celine Nyaga rode for an hour on the back of a motorcycle, cradling her baby in her arms.

The 23-year-old businesswoman had spent all morning scouting public hospitals to find a paediatrician for her Audrey as a nationwide doctors' strike ran into a seventh week.

Kenya's healthcare system has long been overburdened and underfunded, but it has ground to a near halt after about 7,000 members of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) walked off the job to demand better working terms.

"I am exhausted and am very worried," Nyaga told AFP as she arrived at Kiambu Level Five Hospital, north of the capital Nairobi.

A vital safety net for poor Kenyans, the hospital was barely staying afloat with a weary skeleton crew caring for patients in the doctors' absence.

The usually packed hospital was virtually empty during a visit by AFP journalists, with a handful of patients sitting silently on wooden benches, too weak to chat.

The number of patients had dropped to about 30 percent of the usual capacity, Kiambu county health minister Elias Maina told AFP as he visited the facility.