Over 6 000
nurses have applied for verification letters at the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe
after paying the mandatory US$300 fee.
However, many
have not received the documents, leaving them stranded after investing
significant amounts of money hoping to secure better opportunities abroad.
Newsday gathered that a nurse spends between US$1 430 and US$2 000 for the
migration process.
This includes
costs for an English proficiency test, with some repeating multiple times
forking out US$640, US$180 for UK NMC registration, US$165 for laboratory blood
tests, US$65 for tuberculosis screening and about US$100 on training, internet
data and travel expenses.
Transcript fees
in local currency and repeated trips to Harare further increase the financial
burden.
Zimbabwe Nurses
Association president Enock Dongo described the situation as unjust and
financially crippling.
“So this is one
of the costs that one nurse incurred during the process and not to be given the
verification letter at the end. She used more than US$1 400 for nothing, all
gone,” Dongo told NewsDay.
“Looking at the
number of nurses who are in the country trying to get their verification
letters, it’s sad. Calculating the number of nurses who did this process, they
are so many.
“They are so
many and some actually attempted to write English tests four, five, six, seven
times and it means the bill can even go up to US$2 000 something per nurse and
most of the money is also going to the British government for the English test
when people fail and it is not returnable.”
He said the
current system not only drained the pockets of healthcare professionals, but
also eroded trust in public institutions and contributed to worsening
frustration in an already strained health sector.
Recently,
Senator Sengezo Tshabangu asked Health and Child Care deputy minister Sleiman
Kwidini to clarify why the government was failing to process verification
letters despite collecting US$3,6 million from health workers.
For long, the
government has been accused of deliberately withholding these letters and
effectively blocking nurses from finalising job applications abroad.
This has led to
growing outrage within the profession, as many nurses are stuck after using
thousands of dollars.
Health workers,
including nurses, doctors and other medical professionals, have been leaving
the country to work abroad in large numbers.
The reasons for
this include low salaries, poor working conditions, lack of resources and
political instability. Newsday
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