DEPUTY Health and Child Care minister Dr Paul Chimedza has called on government to lift the freeze on all nursing posts during the forthcoming National Budget statement, saying the job freeze had washed away the skills that the newly-trained nurses had acquired.
VENERANDA LANGA,SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
Chimedza told the House of Assembly last week that the affected nurses might require retraining if they stayed longer without practical exposure.
He was responding to MDC-T MP for Kambuzuma Willias Madzimure who had asked if the Ministry of Health and Child Care had requested for a special waiver before the announcement of the 2014 National Budget by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa.
“We are continuously engaging the Ministry of Finance so that these posts can be unfrozen, but probably, I would like to implore this August House to make a decision or enough noise about this issue so that we will have those posts unfrozen,” said Chimedza.
“The problem is that when you train a nurse for three years and this nurse is put in the streets after using government money, they lose the skill and after three years they cannot be a nurse anymore and will need to be retrained,” he said.
Harare Central MP Murisi Zvizwai (MDC-T) said continuous freezing of nursing posts was retrogressive and will also be against the national drive to create 2,4 million jobs as envisaged in the 2013 Zanu PF election manifesto.
Since 2010, Zimbabwe has failed to absorb graduating nurses into its health institutions regardless of staff shortages at most health centres.
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About 2 000 nurses are currently jobless and cannot seek employment outside the country as they were bonded by government. In February this year government partially lifted the ban but only absorbed 1 000 nurses.
