MUTARE-Severe brain drain has crippled Mutare City Council (MCC) to the extent that the City can no longer open its seven clinics on weekends and residents have to consult private clinics.
Acting Town Clerk Blessing Chafesuka told Chipinge Times that most nurses and fire fighters are resigning and finding greener pastures in Europe and Saudi Arabia.
He said his office is receiving an average of 10 resignation offices a month and the local authority has a skeletal 70 member staff at its clinics instead of 170.
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“We have a serious challenge on brain drain of our nurses and fire fighters who are attracted to Europe and Saudi Arabia. Our nurses are leaving in high numbers and now we are mostly relying on locum nurses.
“From an establishment of 170 nurses we are now left with less than 70 and we are recruiting every month. Some of our clinics have stopped being manned over the weekends because of that critical shortage,” explained Chafesuka.
City of Mutare runs Dangamvura, Hobhouse, Gimboki, Fern valley, Chikanga, City Clinic and Forbes Border Post clinics which offer services to over 70 000 residents.
Chafesuka said they have appealed to central Government for support. He emphasized that the local authority is not in a position to offer employees packages being offered to its nurses in Europe.
Experts who spoke to Chipinge Times said the brain drain is cutting across Government and public entities.
“Brain drain is severely affecting the country. All professional from lecturers, nurses, teachers, doctors, scientists, lawyers, nurse aids, truck drivers and fire fighters are finding greener pastures elsewhere. Some security sector are resigning to join private sector security companies outside the country. This should be addressed before the country ends up without skilled employees,” said an expert.
Source: Masvingo Mirror
