Nurses back Uhuru on Health nominee

Ally Jamah

NAIROBI, KENYA: Nurses have broken ranks with doctors regarding President Uhuru Kenyatta’s appointee for Cabinet Secretary for Health saying the choice of a career banker to head the Ministry is the right move.

The National Nurses Association of Kenya and the Kenya NationalNurses Union have said that Mr. James Macharia, who is also a Chartered Accountant, is a proven manager to drive reforms in the critical ministry.

Their stand contradicts the position by doctors, who, through the Kenya Medical Association, opposed the appointment on the grounds that the President should have chosen proven managers from the medical profession instead of going for “outsiders”.

NNAK Chairperson Jeremiah Maina said that medical professionals should concentrate on rendering crucial health services to Kenyans instead of wasting their valuable skills in administrative duties, which should be left to professional managers.

“Our country has an acute shortage of doctors, nurses and other health professionals. We need these people in wards and not in meetings in boardrooms.  We spend a lot of money to train medical professionals and we must use them wisely,” he said.

He said good managers like Mr. Macharia with proven abilities in the banking sector will do a good job of organising the human and financial resources of the health sector to unlock their value and boost the health services that Kenyans receive.

On his part, KNUN Secretary General Seth Panyako said that no doctor should be appointed to head the health ministry and went further and said that even the post of Principal Secretary should not be given to a doctor. He claimed that doctors make poor managers.

 “We have seen that doctors have run down many hospitals and institutions and look down upon other health professionals like nurses. What we need are good managers to organise the financial and human resource capabilities of the Ministry,” he said.

He cited Kenyatta National Hospital claiming it is an example of an institution that is being headed by a non-medic and is performing much better than when it was being headed by a medical professional.

The Union of Kenya Civil Servants also backed Mr Macharia’s nomination saying his management skills will be well supplemented by medical professionals like the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Pharmacist.

He said that the Health Ministry is not the only one being headed by a person from outside the profession, citing the Ministry of Defence which is being headed by a non-military person.  “Let us give Mr. Macharia the chance and see if he delivers on the key targets in the health Ministry. As a union we are ready to work with him. But he fails to deliver, we will be the first ones to speak out against him,” said Evans Nasebe, UKCS’ Head of Medical Chapter.  

NNAK Vice Chairperson Winnie Shena said called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to progressively raise the health budget to 15 per cent of the total budget to enable the country adequately prevent or tackle the health challenges facing Kenyans