Speaking to the Daily News at the weekend, HCC spokesperson
Michael Chideme, said that while they have managed to open all
clinics, resignations had severely affected service delivery.
“From the last quarter of 2021 up to March, we lost over
100 nurses who had resigned and this adversely affected us because at some
point we could not open clinics.
“Most of them were citing poor conditions of service and
salaries which is what we are working to resolve. At the moment we are relying
on locums and hope to get new nurses that fill up the vacant positions,”
Chideme said.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo on the
other hand said resignations by nurses were a nationwide issue threatening to
derail the fight against Covid-19, as the country braces for a third wave.
“… the Harare issue is just but a reflection of a
nationwide problem. Nurses are resigning everywhere across Zimbabwe and in the
case of city councils, a holistic approach should be taken between them and the
government to solve this crisis,” Dongo said.
“We have raised issues of remuneration and conditions of
service for a long time now but no action has been taken. In Harare we even
took the council to court after they failed to pay our members’ salaries and
eventually most of them left for greener pastures.
“Some of the nurses actually left their jobs to safeguard
their lives when Covid-19 hit the country because there was no adequate
personal protective clothing putting them at risk.”
Last year, the Health ministry scrapped flexible working
hours citing increased demand for nurses’ services in light of the Covid-19
pandemic.
The ministry and nurses are currently entangled in legal
battles pending before the courts over the issue.
Nurses have maintained that spending longer hours at health
institutions in the absence of adequate personal protective equipment increased
their risk of contracting Covid-19. “Now, this is the consequence of nurses
resigning. If you look at public health institutions you will see that numbers
of resignations have trebled. If we are to compare January 2020 and January this
year, for example, Parirenyatwa had about 13 resignations last year compared to
the recent 53 and these are senior nurses and midwives,” Dongo added. Daily
News
0 comments:
Post a Comment