Kenyan doctors earn double income, claims Governor Ranguma

The Council of Governors (CoG) has accused doctors of defrauding taxpayers through double income from public and private practice.

CoG Health Committee Chairman Jack Ranguma yesterday said most doctors work in both public and private hospitals, and would prefer abandoning patients in public facilities to attend to those in private ones.

Speaking when he launched a Sh150 million county scholarship programme at Tom Mboya Labour College, Ranguma asked doctors to accept the Government's offer and get back to work as they were not ready to add anything to the offer.

"Reports from our public hospital administrators have it that when our doctors are called upon at the casualty for emergency, they say they are far away and advise that the patient be given painkillers to enable him or her attend to the patient the following day.

SAME PATIENT

"When the same patient is taken to the private hospital, and the same doctor is called, he appears in three minutes," noted Ranguma.

The Kisumu governor claimed most doctors come from rich families and do not understand the meaning of suffering as they have not experienced such life, a situation which has seen them leave patients to suffer in public hospitals.

He claimed most doctors had able parents who could cough up to Sh600,000 to pay for their private sponsorship medicine courses at the university and did not take up the profession out of compassion.

"We need doctors who can work out of passion, and not those who focus on payment even before they work.

"I remember visiting one of our hospitals where a baby had been abandoned in an incubator with no one to attend to him due to the strike," recalled Ranguma.

He said even Jesus Christ who was the greatest doctor on earth treated people for free compared to the current doctors who demand a lot of money before attending to a patient to understand what they suffered from.

With the doctors' industrial action in its seventh week, Kenyans hope a solution to the stalemate will be found soon.

LESS PAY

But Ranguma hinted that the Government would not bow to pressure from the doctors, arguing that even private hospitals pay much less compared to the State.

He told doctors to appreciate what the State had offered, saying it was the best in the current situation.

"Even private hospitals which are businesses do not offer what we offer, yet the doctors do donkey work there.

"We must be able to understand our work and work for passion," he added.

The Government has already threatened to sack doctors who will not report to work today, even as the doctors' union insists that the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement be implemented fully.