Felix Matasva
MUTARE: The City of Mutare has been hit by a severe healthcare worker shortage which has resulted in residents spending more hours waiting to receive treatment at council run clinics.
This emerged during a stakeholder meeting convened in Mutare by the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) in partnership with the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (Ledriz).
Lewis Marowa, a resident in Chikanga high density suburb called for an urgent nurse recruitment to address the growing healthcare needs amid a surge in the eastern border city’s population.
He cited shortages of healthcare workers as the primary cause of delays and disruptions at council clinics dotted around the city.
“My greatest concern is that council clinics are not recruiting healthcare workers in accordance with the growing population. Chikanga clinic staff can no longer handle the population of residents which has grown overtime,’’ Marowa said.
“There are very few nurses and we end up spending the whole day waiting to receive medical attention. I went there to get my baby vaccinated, we arrived very early in the morning but we ended up being served later in the afternoon. There is need to recruit more nurses in order to improve the efficiency of service delivery at our local clinics,” he added.
A woman identified as Mai Mwayera from ward 19 urged the local authority to recruit nurse aids in order to supplement the work of its nurses.
She noted that this will also help the local authority to reduce its health budget as nurse aids can be cheaper to remunerate compared to nurses.
“Our nurses are very few. Women are facing unnecessary delays when they seek medical services at local clinics,” Mwayera said.
Mutare City Council principal accountant, Seth Manyara who spoke on behalf of finance director, Ronald Guni said council would be going against the laws of the country if it recruits nurse aids.
He noted that massive clinic staff exodus has dealt city council a big blow as nurses seek greener pastures due to poor remuneration.
“The records of resignations that council receives from nurses on a monthly basis are shocking. With the limited resources that council operates on we cannot meet the satisfaction of residents at our clinics. We used to operate with the help of government health grants but we are no longer receiving them,” Manyara said.
“Council cannot not compete with the salaries that are being paid to nurses in neighboring countries and abroad. We are losing most of our nurses because as council we do not have capacity to pay them lucrative salaries,” he said.
The principal accountant admitted that Chikanga Clinic can no longer cope with the population hence council constructed a new clinic in Hobhouse western suburb.
Talking to Community Talk, Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Association (MURRA) programs coordinator, David Mutambirwa said there is an urgent need for local government to set up a policy that can allow councils to recruit primary health care workers in order to improve service delivery.
“Delays at council clinics are a cause for concern. Communities are disenfranchised considering that some residents may be sick and have other commitments like looking after the sick, children and elderly people.
“When the working conditions are not good and there are no resources needed to conduct their work, the nurses will not do their work diligently,” he said.
According to official data, Zimbabwe was number two on the top 10 countries of origin for migrant care workers recruited in Britain between the year 2022 and 2024.
