TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the government will strengthen the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) system in the country to ensure that people access quality health services.
WHO Representative in Zimbabwe, Alex Gasasira, told a recent workshop on Health Labour Market Analysis (HLMA) in Bulawayo that Zimbabwe’s UHC index has remained flat at 55% since 2015.
“What is needed now is an evidence-informed implementation of the policy, led by the government and mutually supported by all stakeholders to realise the full tenets of the new policy,” Gasasira said.
His call comes at a time when the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is battling serious brain drain with a number of its health workers leaving in droves for greener pastures abroad.
According to official data obtained from BCC, the local authority’s 19 clinics are operating with staffing levels of between 52% and 62%.
Council requires a staff complement of 186 nursing staff to operate at full capacity.
However, it has been running with 120 nurses.
Gasasira said health worker shortages were compounded by pandemic driven demand for health workers in the high-income countries that has fuelled the migration of health workers from Africa.
“For Zimbabwe’s health systems to fully recover from the adverse impact of the pandemic and to adequately deliver on the promise of UHC there is an urgent need for a renewed focus on the health workforce,” Gasasira said.
He said the WHO was slowly supporting the government in collaboration with other partners to use the HLMA to generate evidence to inform the development of “a new HRH strategy and sustainable investment plan to address some of the longstanding challenges such as the shortage of health workers”.
Last year, the Matabeleland region alone lost hundreds of health workers, which severely affected the effective healthcare delivery at a time when the country was also grappling with Covid-19.
Most of these healthcare workers were reportedly trekking to the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, which recently embarked on a massive recruitment in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Health Services Board, a total of 2 246 health care professionals had left the service as at November 30 last year, more than double the number that left in 2020 which stood at 993.
