The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) says that nurses in the public health sector across the country are facing serious financial struggles and difficult working conditions.
ZINA recently visited several hospitals and clinics in the Midlands Province, such as Kwekwe General Hospital, Mbizo 11 Clinic, Mvuma District Hospital, and others, to talk about the challenges nurses are facing in Zimbabwe’s healthcare system.
In an interview with <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200039049/nurses-bemoan-poor-working-conditions">NewsDay</a>, ZINA president Enock Dongo said that the salaries for January and February were “shockingly low and insufficient” to cover even the basic needs of healthcare workers. Said Dongo:
<blockquote>
The nurses have gone back to the salaries that they were earning in October. In February they received between US$220 and US$250 allowance and their ZiG salary was between ZiG4 000 and ZiG7 000 and considering the parallel market exchange rate, that is not enough.
The nurses, already grappling with financial challenges, are working under extreme conditions that compound their frustrations.
Many are struggling to cover transportation costs and some have had to make difficult decisions regarding basic daily expenses due to the meagre pay.
</blockquote>
He said the situation is even more dire in rural hospitals, where many facilities lack security guards and mortuary attendants, forcing nurses to take on additional responsibilities beyond their professional duties. Added Dongo:
<blockquote>
Nurses in rural areas are also struggling to secure accommodation, as they are not provided with houses and are forced to use their meagre salaries to rent places to stay…
We noted that the country’s healthcare system is facing chronic shortages of both equipment and staff, leading to overwhelming pressure on the remaining workforce.
Nurses are reporting long shifts, often without the necessary resources to properly care for patients and overcrowded hospitals are making it difficult to maintain quality healthcare services.
The physical and emotional toll on healthcare workers is growing and this could lead to further burnout and exodus of skilled professionals.
</blockquote>
Dongo called on the government to urgently address the issues faced by nurses, warning that many are leaving for better opportunities because of low pay and poor working conditions.
He said the situation could get worse, and if the government doesn’t act quickly, even more skilled healthcare workers might leave.
Dongo urged the government to focus on improving the health sector by raising salaries, improving working conditions, and investing more in healthcare resources.

Pindula News

Nurses in Zimbabwe are struggling with low pay and bad working conditions. They are not getting enough money to cover their basic needs like food and transportation. This is making them very frustrated. In rural areas, nurses have to do extra work because there are not enough staff. They also have trouble finding a place to live. The government needs to pay nurses more, improve their working conditions, and give them the resources they need to do their job properly. If things don't change, more nurses might leave their jobs.

ZINA: Nurses Struggling With Financial Challenges And Poor Working Conditions

Nurses working at public health institutions have implored the Government to improve their salaries and conditions of service and have requested a meeting with their employer within the next 14 days.
In a letter to the Health Services Commission (HSC), dated 24 May 2023 and addressed to the HSC acting secretary-general Angelbert Mbengwa, Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enock Dongo said nurses have been pushed to the limit of their endurance. He wrote:
<blockquote>
Firstly it is a matter of great regret that precedent is seemingly showing that the plight of nurses is not an issue of concern to the employer.
The Health Service Bipartite Negotiating Panel, which is supposed to be the forum in which issues are discussed has been deliberately made useless as it has not met in the past two years despite our persistent request for it to sit and discuss issues.
As nurses, our morale is at its lowest ever. We are working under extremely poor conditions that are not only unsafe to patients but even unsafe to ourselves.
Even our capacity to withstand pain has been pushed to the extreme because on a daily basis, we see patients dying simply because basic medication and equipment that could potentially save their lives are not in stock at our hospitals.
</blockquote>
The amended Health Services Act prohibits public healthcare workers from striking for more than 72 hours.
Health workers, who go on strike face disciplinary action, while organisers of such strikes can face imprisonment of up to six months or both.
But Dongo said threatening nurses with arrest or withholding the letter of good standing does not address the challenges that they are facing. He said:
<blockquote>
We, therefore, urge our employer to have a listening ear and seriously consider our plight. To refuse to meet us is not the answer.
To simply say we will arrest you if you strike is not the answer. To withhold the necessary letter of good standing so as to sabotage our efforts to seek employment in other jurisdictions is not the answer.
We, therefore, kindly, but urgently request a meeting with you and interested stakeholders within the next 14 days so as to find solutions for the good of our health sector.
</blockquote>
Contacted for comment by <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200012090/nurses-put-govt-on-notice">NewsDay</a>, Mbengwa said he had not yet received the letter. 
He added that should the commission receive the letter, it would “look into the issues raised”.
Nurses currently earn US$200 in allowances and another U$100 in local currency which they say does not meet their basic needs.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Nurses Demands Meeting With Health Services Commission

The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) has welcomed the decision by the government to extend its waiver on the re-appointment of health workers who had left the service to March 31, 2023, from September 30 this year.
ZINA president Enock Dongo told <a href="https://www.newzimbabwe.com/desperate-government-extends-reappointment-period-for-fired-retired-nurses-as-health-workers-flight-to-greener-pastures-persists/">NewZimbabwe.com</a> that the extension was the government’s admission that things were not well in the health sector. He said:
<blockquote>
This is a clear admission on the part of government that things are not well in the health sector.
A lot of health workers have left for greener pastures and the private sector, leaving gaps that have not been filled.
Government’s call is very serious and we support the return of those who are eligible so as to give service to the public, the most affected by current shortages.
These professionals have not just left services for no apparent reason; they left because of poor working conditions, poor remuneration, intimidation by the state and a general lack of dialogue between the employer and employee.
These have to be addressed, otherwise these re-appointments will be premature. If government fails to do so then they will either look at their colleagues who are still employed and opt not to join or join and leave again.
</blockquote>
According to a letter signed by Health Services Board acting executive director, Angelbert Mbengwa, the government extended the waiver by six months. It reads:
<blockquote>
It is noted that the Board extended the waiver of reappointment for former health workers who need to rejoin the service to Central Hospitals and Provincial Medical Directors for a period of six months from 01 April 2022 to 30 September 2022.
Please be advised that the waiver has been extended for a further period of six months from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 to facilitate urgent appointments to fill vacant posts in institutions.
However, the reappointment of the following categories shall be centralized at the Board; all former nurses applying to rejoin the service, members who were discharged from the service on grounds of misconduct, convicted of a criminal offence, or terminated through medical grounds.
In view of the above, Central Hospitals and Provincial Medical Directors shall continue approving applications for reappointment of the other grades as communicated before. Institutions should thus submit the applications for the above two categories to the Board.
The General Manager of the Salary Service Bureau is therefore being instructed to accept reappointments authorised at stations in line with the above framework.
</blockquote>
Zimbabwe’s public sector is experiencing an exodus of health workers fleeing poor working conditions and poor remuneration to better-paying countries in Europe, Namibia, and America, among others.

Union Welcomes Govt Re-hiring Of Fired And Retired Nurses

Unions representing civil servants say their bonus in United States dollars is too little as they demand the restoration of their pre-October 2018 United States dollar salaries of $540.
A correspondence from the National Joint Negotiation Committee (NJNC) held on Monday reveals that civil servants will get their bonus including a flat US$200 presidential bonus. It reads:
<blockquote>
Payment of the 2022 bonus for deputy director level and grades below will be in US dollars as 100% of gross pensionable emoluments (basic salary, transport and housing allowance. An additional US$200 will be paid to every employee as a special presidential bonus.
The bonus will be paid in two equal tranches across all sectors starting from November, with the latest payment being in December.
</blockquote>
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure argued that paying in installments will further erode the purchasing power of the bonus. He said:
<blockquote>
The 100% bonus remains paltry because it is 100% of a paltry income. We insist that salaries should be adjusted to the pre-October 2018 level. Paying in installments will further erode the purchasing power of the bonus.
The parties who signed representing NJNC should be ashamed for sustaining an illegal platform for their own expediency.
Civil servants deserve a genuine collective bargaining platform in line with Convention 154 of ILO, best practices in the region and section 65(5) of our own Constitution.
The naming of an annual bonus as presidential shows that we are not serious as a nation.
What’s so presidential about that paltry amount? Someone somewhere is reducing the Office of the President to a joke.
</blockquote>
Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enock Dongo called on the government to release the bonus once and not in tranches. Dongo said:
<blockquote>
We want to appeal to the government to pay the bonus at once in one month, not to divide it into two since it’s not much and also we are still asking for more.
The figure presented as a bonus is too little to thank the hardworking employees with.
</blockquote>
| <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200003366/civil-servants-scoff-at-bonus-offer">NewsDay</a>

Special Presidential Bonus Too Little - Civil Servants

Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enock Dongo says the dire state of the country’s public health sector is contributing to brain drain and an acute shortage of staff.
Speaking to <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/health/article/200000700/hospitals-face-acute-staff-shortage">NewsDay</a>, Dongo said most health facilities are dilapidated which makes the work of nurses difficult. He said:
<blockquote>
The health sector is going down and the infrastructure is not up to standard and renovations are not being done.
Complaints to access health facilities are too many among the patients and the health personnel.
There are no resources and machines are old and there has not been any purchase for the last three to four years for major hospitals.
There is a need for modern machines like X-rays and scans among others.
It is sad that in public hospitals, simple drugs like paracetamol and painkillers are inaccessible.
It becomes difficult when patients are transferred from places like Tshelanyemba, Mtshabezi, and Plumtree, among others and they don’t have relatives in the city and are told to buy medication that they don’t afford, it’s a dire situation that needs attention.
</blockquote>
Political leaders in Mashonaland Central Province recently revealed that <a href="https://zero.pindula.co.zw/zimbabweans-cross-into-zambia-and-mozambique-for-medical-care/">some locals are being forced to cross the border into Zambia and Mozambique to seek medical attention.</a>
This is due to the high cost of medical care in Zimbabwe as well as the long distances they have to travel to get to the nearest hospital.

Zim's Health Sector Going Down - Dongo

Health experts have expressed that schools may be superspreaders of measles, with the disease spreading rapidly countrywide since it was detected in Mutasa District on 10 April this year.
As of 6 September 2022, the Ministry of Health and Childcare had recorded 6 551 cumulative cases, including 4 633 recoveries and 704 deaths across the country.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enock Dongo told <a href="https://newsday.co.zw/health/article/200000173/measles-outbreak-looms-in-schools">NewsDay</a> that there is a high chance of measles spreading like a wildfire in schools. He said:
<blockquote>
There is no guarantee for safety, especially in rural areas and other children where they are crowded.
What it means is that the chances of them spreading to each other are very high, especially considering how virulent it is.
So we have no guarantee that this is not going to spread. People should be vaccinated to avoid the chances of hospitalisation and death.
</blockquote>
Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike said:
<blockquote>
We want to continue encouraging parents and guardians to have all children vaccinated against measles in order to avoid schools becoming the epicentre or hotspot for measles.
</blockquote>
Westview Clinics boss, Dr Johannes Marisa, said the government should educate people on the importance of being vaccinated against the disease. He said:
<blockquote>
We are worried that schools have opened while the situation is like this where measles is spreading like veld fire.
So at this juncture, we should fight vaccine hesitancy by removing all myths around measles.
Disinformation and misinformation surrounding issues of measles are contributing to the law uptake of the vaccines.
</blockquote>
Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) noted that measles had been progressing quickly and the case fatality was relatively higher when compared to other recent outbreaks.

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