- Zimbabwe’s vice president says the brain drain in the country’s health sector is a crime against humanity.
- Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the country’s health minister, has encouraged Zimbabweans to train as health workers.
- He said Zimbabweans were dying in hospitals because there were no nurses and doctors.
Some health workers who left for the UK for greener pastures are stranded in Ireland because the Zimbabwean government has stopped issuing clearance letters allowing them to work abroad.
This as Zimbabwe’s vice president and health minister, Constantino Chiwenga, said there were plans to criminalise the hiring of Zimbabwean nurses.
“The people are dying in hospitals because there are no nurses and doctors.
“If one deliberately recruits and makes the country suffer, that’s a crime against humanity,” Chiwenga added when addressing a gathering in Harare on Wednesday.
In December 2021, he said there were plans to approach the UN to seek reparations for the brain drain in the health sector.
Chiwenga claimed it cost around R6.3 million to train a doctor in Zimbabwe.
Stranded in Ireland
Stanley Ncube (not his real name) might be jobless in the UK next month if the Zimbabwe Nurses Council does not clear him.
“I arrived in 2021 and had with me my clearance from the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe. Now that I am here, I am meant to get a secondary clearance letter from them.”
He said:
For some reason, they are not processing the letters, and now I am stuck.
The procedure in the UK is that for one to work there, they should get a clearance letter from the local board, but one can only get it with clearance from their home country.
“When I got here, I wrote an exam and passed. So, after the exam, the Zimbabwe Nurses Council must issue the verification letter that will be used to register and get a critical skills visa,” Ncube said.
He feared without the permit, many nurses like him could be deported.
Zimbabwe had emerged as the biggest African contributor to the UK health sector, according to figures from the British Home Office.
Government statistics revealed, since February 2021, an estimated 4 000 nurses left Zimbabwe. From that, 1 800 are said to have left last year.
According to figures from the Zimbabwe Medical Association, only 3 500 registered doctors were operating in Zimbabwe at present for a population north of 15 million.
The situation was made worse by the fact there were 2.6 nurses for a thousand people, according to the World Bank.
Chiwenga playing a hard game
From calling doctors “skilled labourers”, to firing more than 15 000 nurses and later enacting a law banning health workers from undertaking industrial action, Chiwenga is an unpopular man in the health sector.
As of January this year, health workers were not allowed to strike for more than three days because they are a critical labour force.
Defiant union leaders can face up to six months in jail under the law.
READ | Zimbabwe seeks to limit doctors, nurses striking over pay
The government has refused to increase their salaries and the working conditions are bad.
There is a shortage of basic and critical equipment such as drugs and machinery which leads to incapacitation.
In 2018, Chiwenga fired about 15 000 nurses who had gone on strike for better pay. While many were rehired, some, who made plans to leave the country, did not return to work.
Retired nurses were called back but still, they did not cover the void left by those who had left for greener pastures.
Soldiers and police train as health workers
The government has been silently training soldiers and the police as health workers. This will guarantee a smooth flow because soldiers and the police have no provision for industrial action.
Through its health centres, the army is also training nurse’s aides who are then deployed countrywide.
The Zimbabwe National Army calls it “oiling the health sector”.
A doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Chiwenga was ignoring the fact the government was not acting in good faith in dealing with health workers.
“We are not paid enough, there’s not enough to work with too. Investment in the health sector is not a priority for them.
“In my circle of colleagues, three have left the country and by December, I doubt I would be around.
“For a country’s development, health workers are an important aspect. It won’t take us long to become citizens in countries that we migrate to because of what we provide,” he said.
An ailing health sector
Nurses earn less than R4 000, including benefits, while doctors earn almost double that.
In the 2023 budget of Z$4.5 trillion (R250 billion), 11% was allocated to the health sector.
The Community Working Group on Health said the money channelled to the health sector was insufficient.
The Abuja Declaration, which Zimbabwe is a signatory to, stipulates 15% of a country’s annual budget should go towards health.
As Covid-19 struck, years of underfunding of Zimbabwe’s health system were exposed as there were severe shortages of vital and life-saving supplies, including ventilators and intensive care beds.
To plug the gap left by the government, most of the funding for the country’s health sector comes from external sources.
In hard-to-reach areas, village health workers funded by NGOs are instrumental in providing health services.
One health worker, Wisma Mugano, covers a variety of health needs and is available 24 hours per day.
“In a way, as a village health worker, I work 24 hours because I get people who come to my homestead for emergencies, such as women who are in labour, and I assist where I can or refer them to the clinic,” he said.
However, the proposed Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill could alter funding for health services offered by NGOs.
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.