Zimbabwe nursing vacancies down 50 percent

Zimbabwe nursing vacancies down 50 percent - report

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By Lebo Nkatazo

ZIMBABWE has managed to fill vacancies for nursing staff by almost 50 percent despite a massive brain drain triggered by the country’s unprecedented economic collapse, a report by MPs said.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health report, made available Tuesday, attributed the increase in the number of nurses in the country’s hospitals to the hiring of retired staff and newly trained recruits.

The committee commended the efforts of the Health Service Board in steadying the loss of trained health professionals.

In September 2006, the Health Services Board said the country had lost almost 50 percent of key professionals within the country’s public health institutions, mainly nurses, midwives and doctors.

The MPs said in their report: “The committee noted that there had been some improvement in the retention of staff over the past two years, especially nurses, who are key to the health system.

“The vacancy rate for nurses dropped from 40 percent to 23 percent as of December 2006.”

Thousands of health professionals have left Zimbabwe for greener pastures in Europe, America and Australia where they are offered better pay and working conditions.

The MPs said in their report: “It costs about US$60 000 to train a doctor and losing them in dozens is a serious resources drain.”

The World Health Organisation recommends a minimum ratio of 100 nurses for every 100 000 people, but many African nations, including Zimbabwe, do not come even close to that requirement.

Zimabwe’s nurses and doctors are some of the poorest paid in the region. Nurses and doctors employed at government hospitals went on a lengthy strike earlier this year to press for higher wages, paralysing a public health system creaking under the burden of HIV/AIDS.

The move forced President Robert Mugabe's government -- which faced the prospect of a full-scale strike by the civil service after teachers also boycotted work -- to increase wages twice in as many months to pacify restive government workers.

Nurses employed by the government earn about 550,000 Zimbabwean dollars (US$2,200 at the official rate but US$22 at the black market rate).

Workers in the southern African country have borne the brunt of a severe economic crisis, blamed on Mugabe's policies and marked by record inflation, 80 percent unemployment and persistent shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.

Mugabe denies mismanaging the economy, which he says has been hurt by sanctions imposed by Western countries.
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