A highly emotive video is going viral showing the gut-wrenching moment a woman pleaded with striking doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital to attend to a patient.
The woman, identified as Francisca Kinuthia, had taken a critically-ill patient for treatment on Monday, September 28 when she was denied services by the striking doctors.
In the 1-minute video shared by Citizen TV, Francisca is seen wailing and lamenting that she had gone to several hospitals but was not getting any help.
At one point, Francisca is heard painfully calling on President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene as the medics cheer her on. She mentions that her patient was in a car and feared that he would die if not treated urgently.
Makes you wonder what happened to medicine being a calling rather than a profession.
This comes after a 27-year-old man succumbed at the Kenyatta National Hospital parking lot on Monday after workers refused to attend to him. Evans, a bodaboda operator, was vomiting blood and left to die after waiting for hours to be treated.
Health workers at KNH, Kenya’s largest public hospital, downed their tools on Monday demanding implementation of proposed salary review.
The strike entered its second day on Tuesday as KNH moved to court to challenge the go-slow in an application certified as urgent.
Subsequently, the Employment and Labour Relations Court suspended the strike pending the hearing of the case.
“The strike notice by the Respondent calling for a general strike or lockout with respect to any category of staff in the employment of the Kenyatta National Hospital is hereby suspended and or stayed pending inter-parties hearing of the application herein,” the court order read in part.
Lady Justice Maureen Onyango directed KNH management to serve striking workers and interested parties not later than close of day on Wednesday.
The court set the inter partes hearing for the application October 6.
