I support the Peremende Movement

  1. Well said, @alkags. But – some minor correction. When Linda Afya 2 started, one of the key demands was payment of registrars. Registrars are not interns. They are medical practitioners that have completed internship, gotten licensed, worked a bit and gone back for postgraduate studies. Registrars do the bulk of the work at teaching hospitals – for example, if you are taken to KNH casualty at night [ God Forbid ] and you need surgery, it will usually be a team of registrars doing it. If you are admitted in any public ward, the registrars are the doctors covering the wards.

    There have been attempts to claim that the "curriculum time" of a resident / registrar is 80 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. But – tell me – is it fair to ask someone to pay fees ( > KES 250,000 pa ), work them 80 hours a week and insist on not paying them? Every other country pays residents. Our own Aga Khan University Hospital pays residents.

    There is a "quality of care" perspective too. Can you reasonably expect a man / woman that has worked > 100 hours a week [ they also do locums on the side to get their daily bread ] to provide optimal care? They are human.

    Why does the self sponsored registrar exist? Allegedly, the government sponsors postgraduate education for doctors that have worked for it for three years. Nonsense. First, the waiting lists are > 10 years long. Second – an Afya house fiefdom / personality cult centered around the DMS [ Dr Francis Kimani ] gets to determine who "deserves" to go on study leave, and what areas of study are priority or not ie kujuana. Third – even when doctors are allegedly sponsored by the Ministry, the fees are never remitted to the Universities. For example – this year's budget had KES 200m for settling of fees owed to the Universities, for government registrars. The money went "missing", mysteriously. In summary – government sponsorship of postgraduate training is fiction.

    I could go on and on. But – let me wind up by reminding everyone that a registrar or resident is "a fully qualified medical practitioner with a valid practicing license and a few years experience, who has chosen to pursue specialist training." Read and re-read that definition and cross-check it from other online sources.

  2. Pay our doctors + better their working conditions – enough said. As a taxpayer I want my money spent wisely and not wasted away. Well written Al.

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