September 24, 2006, 15:00
Zimbabwe has lost half of its public health professionals in the last few years and is the African country hardest hit by a "brain drain" driven largely by economic hardship, a state newspaper reported today.
Zimbabwe's official Sunday Mail newspaper said skilled health staff have migrated mostly to Western Europe and some neighbouring African countries in search of better salaries and better work conditions. "Zimbabwe is the country hardest hit by the brain drain on the continent, resulting in a loss of 50 percent of key professionals within the public health institutions," the Sunday Mail said quoting a report by the state Health Services Board.
"So critical is the situation that junior doctors and inexperienced nurses form the bulk of personnel manning most of the institutions," it said.
Inflation at 1 200%
The embattled southern African country is struggling with a severe economic crisis many critics blame on Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's government. The health sector is struggling to function amid the crisis, which has brought shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency along with water and power cuts and an inflation rate of over 1 200%.
The government's five major hospitals were operating with 36 senior doctors instead of 145 72 specialist consultants instead of 189, and two specialist pathologists out of eight required, the newspaper said. By last December there was up to 89% vacancies for laboratory technicians, 44 percent for senior nurses and 88.4% for primary care nurses, it added.
An estimated 3 million Zimbabweans - a quarter of the national population - have sought jobs and homes abroad, many of them illegally, as a result of the political and economic crisis blamed on Mugabe's increasingly controversial rule.
But Mugabe (82) who has ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1980, rejects charges he has misruled Zimbabwe. He blames the economic crisis on sabotage by his opponents and Western sanctions imposed over allegations of political repression and land transfers. – Reuters
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