The County Government of Busia has warned health workers who have been on a go slow since Tuesday last week of disciplinary action should they fail to report to work this week.
The medics from 17 cadres including doctors, nurses, clinical officers and pharmacists went on strike demanding promotions, salary arrears and an improvement on their working conditions thus interrupting delivery of health care services across the county.
Addressing the media on Sunday, Deputy Governor, Arthur Odera reiterated the County Government’s commitment to address their concerns but on condition that they also return back to work.
The DG who is also the County Executive for Health and Sanitation disclosed that starting next month the leadership will commence the process of clearing their arrears, while restocking of hospitals with drugs and other essential commodities will proceed once the devolved unit clears the debt it owes Drugs Agency KEMSA through the supplementary budget.
He dismissed the allegations that the County Government had failed to honor the Return-to-Work formulae signed during the previous strike in 2020.
“We have to come to reality that its impossible to promote a team of 900 staff within three months. The promotion of 32 officers who passed their suitability test will be effected soon,” he said.
On matters employment of casuals, the DG said the current procedure is too tedious, time consuming and expensive but the County government is opting for sub contracting service providers to manage the same.