Zimbabwe clinics grapple as hundreds of nurses relocate to the UK

Reports of lack of enough nurses in both public and private hospitals in Zimbabwe have been making headlines in the Southern African country.

Several media reports indicate that hundreds of nurses have relocated to the United Kingdom, Ireland, or in neighboring countries like South Africa for a greener pasture.

Media reports have further pointed out that some private and public hospitals are now operating at 50% capacity in recent months.

The UK has been conducting a recruitment drive to supplement its medical professionals who were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Brexit.

According to Zimbabwe's Health Service Board, over 2,200 medical personnel left its services in 2021 alone. This included 900 nurses.

This was twice the number of practitioners who left in 2020 and three times that of a year before.

Zimbabwe nurses are lowly paid with the lowest at a paltry $200, an amount that isn’t enough to sustain a living in a country that has suffered hyperinflation for the past decade.