By Own Correspondent

A crippling strike is hovering above the country’s health sector threatening to collapse an already ailing health system, The Worker has learnt.

Sources at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals anonymously told the publication that all is not well at most of the country’s healthcare facilities.

Zimbabwean nurses, already reeling from other factors affecting the country’s economic and political scene, are now earning just about US$10 if their local currency salaries are converted at the government’s interbank rate.

“Numerous efforts to engage the Health Apex panel are not yielding any results and workers are getting agitated with the dire situation. As it stands, morale is so low and it's good as there is no work being done at all,” the employee said.

Another nurse who spoke to The Worker alleged that most workers are now resorting to corrupt tendencies to make ends meet.

“Most nurses now demand some sort of payment directly from patients in exchange for better service in the hospitals. That’s the only way they can make ends meet,” she said.

However, sources privy to the developments said pressure is currently mounting on the unionists to call for a strike.

 More than 4,000 health workers, including more than 2,600 nurses, left Zimbabwe in 2021 and 2022, according to official statistics. Traditional destinations include Canada, Australia and Britain where the starting salary for a nurse is about £28,400.

Traditional destinations include Canada, Australia and Britain where the starting salary for a nurse is about £28,400 ($34,490). The World Health Organization has since added Zimbabwe to a "red list" of countries with pressing health worker shortage.

More than 4,330 nurses trained in Zimbabwe are registered with Britain's Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).