Zimbabwe nurses union won't intervene in Australia crisis

Zimbabwe nurses union won't intervene in Australia crisis

• Australia suspends recruitment of Zim nurses

• Zimbabwean busted in Aussie cheque scam

• Zim man jailed in £20m cheque book scam

• UK jail for Zim identity fraud woman

• Zim student in UK credit card fraud

By Staff Reporter

THE Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZNA) will not step into the brewing storm between Australia and Zimbabwean nurses who are being investigated over forgery claims, an official said Thursday.

New Zimbabwe.com revealed last week that the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC) had ordered a stop to the recruitment of new nurses from Zimbabwe until checks on thousands of nurses already in the country are completed.

In a message posted on its website, the Australian Nursing Council said: "The ANMC is currently not processing or accepting applications from Zimbabwe nurses. We have recently received advice from the Nursing Council of Zimbabwe that fraudulent verifications have been issued.

"An investigation is being conducted by the ANMC in conjunction with Nursing and Midwifrey Regulatory Authorities into these matters. Until the ANMC has been assured that the information received is authentic and accurate, no applications will be processed or accepted."

The New Zealand Nursing Council, meanwhile, is said to be sending a representative to Zimbabwe to meet Nursing Council of Zimbabwe (NCZ) officials and discuss the forgery claims.

The ZNA -- the trade union body for public sector nurses -- on Thursday said none of its members had reported concerns about the Australian investigation and it would not be intervening.

Doreen Choruma, the ZNA spokeswoman said: "We have yet to get any communication from our members affected by the Australian developments. I am sure if any of them were stranded, they would communicate with us."

Choruma suggested that some of the information coming from the Australian authorities might be "propaganda", without elaborating.

The Nursing Council of Zimbabwe (NCZ), meanwhile, has not yet issued a public statement following claims that it sparked the whole investigation by claiming that tens of nurses may have forged their Certificates of Good Standing -- a prerequisite for nurses in Commonwealth countries to have before they are allowed to practise.

A woman answering the NCZ phones on Thursday said she had no permission to comment. She said there would be no official comment until Friday.

Several Zimbabwean nurses have contacted New Zimbabwe.com in the past week to complain about delays by the NCZ in issuing Certificates of Good Standing. This may have forced some nurses desperate to quit Zimbabwe to forge their papers, they said.

So far, Australian authorities have revealed that two women were suspended from direct care in South Australia after their Certificates of Good Standing we found to be fraudulent.

The Australians have not suggested that unqualified Zimbabweans may have been allowed to practise.

But for nurses found to have acquired some papers outside official channels, the prospects look grim.

Nurses who have been denied registration can be blacklisted, making it difficult for them to work in any Commonwealth country.

Some Zimbabwean nurses in Australia are worried about the effects of the publicity around the investigation on their relationship with patients. Unconfirmed reports say at one hospital, some elderly patients put newspaper cuttings about the probe on a notice board and refused to be seen by a Zimbabwean nurse.

One nurse said: "The worst thing is that the Zimbabwean nurses in Australia have no representation. If there could be some union that can clarify all this
with the council and state facts as they are, then it will be possible to save thousands of Zimbabweans from going home in the next few weeks.

"We really have less than a week to come up with something like a Zimbabwe nurses society in Australia. Maybe it could help."

Australia, meanwhile, is thought to be considering new moves to force foreign nurses to undergo a period of unpaid supervised practise for three months starting in January next year.

Alongside the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, Australia tops the list of destinations for Zimbabwean professionals, political refugees and economic migrants driven away by a failing economy at home.
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