The management of Nairobi Women’s Hospital has offered to pay staff partial salaries as it works on reducing arrears spanning several months.
The employees held protests outside the facility early Monday demanding the pay they said hasn’t been forthcoming for five months now.
“Wangekutuma na pesa (they should have sent you with money),” the employees told an official sent to speak to them.
“We are willing to have a dialogue with you. We want to assure you that this time round we are ready,” the official said.
The pleas fell on deaf ears with the employees pointing out that agreements reached previously were not honoured.
“We have for five months without any salary and now you are here telling us to have dialogue?” one of the employees posed.
In a statement later in the day, CEO Sam Thenya blamed the situation on delayed remittances from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), National Police Service (NPS) and NHIF.
Thenya said the three entities are their significant clientele partners, responsible for a substantial portion of revenue streams for the medical facility.
“Needless to say, some of these delays date back to the NHIF old e-claim system (2018-2019) and the NHIF old manual system (2019-2021),” he said.
The CEO and founder acknowledged the gravity of the matter saying patients have also been negatively impacted but said assured that talks were ongoing with relevant authorities and stakeholders to expedite the payment.
“In the interim, we have implemented short-term measures to support our employees, including the establishment of a financial assistance programme offering partial salary advances. Additionally, we are working on long-term strategies to mitigate similar challenges in the future,” Thenya said.
He apologised to the staff for the inconvenience caused over the months and reaffirmed its commitment to continued issuance of healthcare to patients.
“We call on your understanding during these challenging times,” he said.
