ZIMBABWE is experiencing a critical shortage of specialist nurses with some health centres not having even a single one, health experts said last week.
Report by Jennifer Dube
They urged government to give incentives to nurses who wish to specialise in certain areas of health in order to deal with the issue of the shortage of specialist nurses.
Among the areas that do not have enough specialist nurses are midwifery, casualty, theatre, adult/geriatric health and pediatric health.
In separate interviews with The Standard last week, the experts said the shortage of specialist nurses across board was one of the many problems which continue to plague the health sector, compromising service delivery.
Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director Itai Rusike, whose organisation promotes people’s participation in health matters, urged government to give incentives to specialist nurses to retain them.
“We have had a shortage of specialist nurses for a long time now,” said Rusike.
“There should be a reward for those nurses who have gone for specialised training to encourage more nurses to acquire additional skills.”
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Stakeholders in the health sector said most nurses ended at general nurse level because they saw no reason to develop their skills further, as remuneration for nurses was the same across board.
They added that the few specialist nurses who are available are being overworked.
Parirenyatwa Hospital chief executive officer Thomas Zigora also confirmed the shortage of nurses in the country but added his institution was less affected.
“There is a shortage countrywide and Parirenyatwa Hospital is obviously affected too,” he said. “We have a slight advantage over other institutions in that we offer training but still, the shortage is felt across all categories.”
The shortage of specialist nurses are worse in rural areas because nurses were discouraged from taking up posts there due to distance from urban centres. This, experts said, was contributing to the current high maternal and infant mortality rates as some mothers lacked specialist assistance during labour.
They also urged government to support nurse training schools so they increase their intake and also improve the quality of their training.
Efforts to get a comment from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare were fruitless as both Minister Henry Madzorera and his deputy Douglas Mombeshora’s mobile phones were unreachable.
Questions emailed to the ministry’s spokesperson, Donald Mujiri were not responded to.
People who spoke to The Standard bemoaned long queues which continue to plague government health centres, including Parirenyatwa Hospital, one of the country’s largest referral hospitals. But those with relatives at the hospital or money can easily get treated, they claimed.
But Zigora said the long queues at Parirenyatwa were a result of the fact that Harare’s population has grown over the years and the disease burden has kept on increasing.
The fact that the number of public health institutions has not been increased to match the increasing population also contributed to the queues at the hospital, he said.
The Zimbabwe HIV and Aids Activists Union (Zhaau) vice- president, Stanley Takaona said sector problems specific to HIV patients included inaccessibility of some health centres.
“Universal access is still a dream to some HIV and Aids patients like some among 3 000 access their antiretroviral drugs at a satellite centre in Gachegache in Kariba,” Takaona said.
“The centre was established under government’s decentralisation programme but it is only accessible through boats.
