logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2024
13m 27s

Is it worth becoming a doctor in Kenya?

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Doctors in Kenya have been on the streets protesting against the state of healthcare in the country. They’re angry about a shortage of staff in hospitals and other public medical facilities.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union or KMPDU want the government to plug the gaps by paying for medical interns to start working in hospitals immediately. But the country’s Ministry of Health says it doesn’t have the funds to do that.

Dorcas Wangira, the BBC’s Africa Health correspondent, explains the doctors’ main demands and discusses how a planned 14-day strike could impact the health system.

Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Beverly Ochieng Producers: Josh Jenkins and William Lee Adams Editors: Simon Peeks

Up next
Yesterday
Rare earths - The most important minerals you probably haven’t heard of
Rare earth minerals are vital to modern human life - but you probably haven’t heard of them. They’re in our phones, computers and cars. These minerals aren’t actually that rare, but they’re difficult to extract - and this process can be pretty damaging to the environment. Mining ... Show More
11m 48s
Jul 8
‘I replaced my therapist with an AI chatbot’
From drafting emails to planning trips, AI has become like a personal assistant for lots of people around the world. Now, the technology is playing a new role: therapist. Rather than waiting for an appointment or paying to see a professional, thousands of people are turning to AI ... Show More
14m 31s
Jul 7
Meet Velvet Sundown - the band that doesn’t really exist
The Velvet Sundown have become a viral hit. The band have over a million streams on Spotify and are generating much discussion across the music community. Except the band and its members don’t actually exist. After weeks of speculation about whether they were real or not, the ban ... Show More
11m 14s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2023
Why is it so hard for new doctors to get jobs in Kenya?
“The country has spent so much training us – and yet we are still wallowing in joblessness right now.” According to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council, only around 1,000 out of the 5,000 medical students who’ve graduated in the past five years have found jobs as ... Show More
15m 43s
Feb 2021
Kenya’s unhappy doctors and nurses
All over the world, frontline health workers have paid the ultimate price during the coronavirus pandemic. But in Kenya the story of one young doctor’s heroism has made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Twenty eight year-old Stephen Mogusu died from Covid 19 in December 2020, ... Show More
26m 43s
Oct 2021
ER Nurse Exposes the Reality of Vaccine Mandate Damage | Kevin Surdi Interview
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to emergency room nurse and congressional candidate Kevin Surdi about how New York’s vaccine mandate for health care workers has been a disaster for staffing and nurse burnout. This week the vaccine mandate for health care workers in NY took e ... Show More
17m 11s
Jan 2023
Doctors’ disorders: Britain’s overwhelmed health service
Britain’s National Health Service is in crisis. Wait times are rising, nurses and paramedics are striking, and doctors are overworked—leading to hundreds of excess deaths each week. We visit the front line: a stretched GP’s surgery in Wales. We ask why Germany and Poland love to ... Show More
32m 20s
Aug 2022
A crisis in US rural healthcare
America’s rural hospitals face an uncertain future. One in three are now at risk of closure as doctors and nurses quit, patients struggle to pay their medical bills and government covid subsidies stop. We hear from the front line of one rural hospital in Luray, Virginia. Travis C ... Show More
17m 28s
Jan 2023
How Nonprofit Hospitals Put Profits Over Patients
Nonprofit hospitals — which make up around half of hospitals in the United States — were founded to help the poor.But a Times investigation has revealed that many have deviated from those charitable roots, behaving like for-profit companies, sometimes to the detriment of the heal ... Show More
31m 49s
Jan 2023
Doctors’ disorders: Britain’s overwhelmed health service
Britain’s National Health Service is in crisis. Wait times are rising, nurses and paramedics are striking, and doctors are overworked—leading to hundreds of excess deaths each week. We visit the front line: a stretched GP’s surgery in Wales. We ask why Germany and Poland love to ... Show More
32m 20s
Jun 2023
What conditions are African nurses facing abroad?
In March this year, the W-H-O identified 55 countries as facing the “most pressing health workforce challenges”. Basically, nations where there are less than 49 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people – the global average. Forty-one of them are in Africa. In response, some ... Show More
22m 25s
Nov 2021
Can governments handle an ever-changing virus?
Countries are closing their borders and imposing travel restrictions in a race to contain the new Omicron Covid-19 variant. While little is known about it, there are fears it may be highly infectious and more resistant to vaccines. So, are governments prepared to deal with an eve ... Show More
24m 1s