As doctors’ strike continues, it has been revealed that government hospitals pay better than private hospitals, in some cases four times better than most private hospitals.
Salaries for government doctors range from Ksh 127, 910 to Ksh538, 980.The lowest paid government doctor is one who works as a new recruit, fresh from college while the highest paid doctor is one who has over 15 years’ experience. This means that the average salary of a government doctor in Kenya is Ksh 300,000.
Our survey reveals that private hospitals in Kenya don’t employ doctors on permanent basis, meaning that they have to sign contracts periodically. Even though it’s believed that private hospitals pay better than government hospitals, the facts on the ground reveal otherwise. We have established that even popular hospitals like Mater, Aga Khan and Nairobi Hospital pay more than half of their doctors less than Ksh 200,000.The salary does not attract allowances but attracts tax.
Since most doctors know that if they join private hospitals would result to a raw deal, they opt to work for government and work as part time doctors for private hospitals. If today you tell a government doctor to resign, he will not even dare because he knows what awaits him in private hospitals.
