By Own Correspondent

THE continued migration of Zimbabwean health workers to countries where their labour is valued and reasonably remunerated is creating a huge void which might take ages for the country to fill.

The current migrations, which are the worst in history, have been largely prompted by the devastating effects of Covid19 which left most health workers abroad dead as they succumbed to the pandemic on the frontline.

In a bid to replenish their health workforce, countries like Namibia, South Africa, the United States of America and the United Kingdom have turned to Zimbabwe for urgent recruitment, amid confirmations by authorities that most clinics in the country are operating at just 50% capacity.

Investigations by The Worker also revealed a dire situation where some clinics are operating with one nurse.

“It is a desperate situation. I was recently transferred from Mrewa to Mt Darwin in a bid to cover the vacuum being created by the departures. Unfortunately more nurses are currently preparing their papers hence I do not see an end to this terrible situation,” she said on strict condition of anonymity.

Authorities in Zimbabwe have been on record for trivialising concerns raised by the workers.

At the height of labour disputes in the Health sector back in 2019, Vice President and Health Minister, Constantino Chiwenga, whose appointment to the portfolio was suspected to be a gesture aimed at silencing the sector from pressing for their due labour rights broke the record when he said, “the doctor is a skilled technician, or laborer whose knowledge fits him for an Occupation but not a Profession.”

But such recklessness has today left the country in a dire situation with official records from the Health Services Board showing that over 2,200 medical personnel left the country last year alone of which 900 of them were nurses.

In Zimbabwe nurses earn less than US$100 per month in comparison to US$1,472 in Namibia, US$1,887 in South Africa and US$3,472 in the United Kingdom.

Zimbabwe gobbles millions of taxpayers’ monies annually training nurses and doctors who are now not able to plough back to the communities due to poor working conditions.

Despite persistently paying poor salaries, the government is on record for wasting millions of foreign currency on self –aggrandizement needs like purchasing weapons, political campaign vehicles and electioneering.

More millions are siphoned out of the country through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) with the 2013 African Development Bank report established that Zimbabwe had cumulatively lost US$12 billion over a ten year period.

So dire is the situation that the Health Services Board has appealed to both fired and retired nurses to rejoin the service, but the recent move to extend the deadline for applications indicates that the responses are poor as well.

“Please be advised that the waiver has been extended for a further period of six months from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 to facilitate urgent appointments to fill vacant posts in institutions.

“However, the reappointment of the following categories shall be centralized at the Board; all former nurses applying to re-join the service, members who were discharged from the service on grounds of misconduct, convicted of criminal offence or terminated through medical grounds.”