The Ministry of Health and Child Care has come under fire for failing to deploy recently qualified 15 doctors despite the huge shortage of doctors in the health system.
In an interview with 263Chat, Health Apex national spokesperson,who is also the Acting President of Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), Dr Peter Magombeyi said the ministry was supposed to respond immediately as government hospitals are already experiencing a shortage.
“We thought the relevant ministry would act accordingly but it’s proving otherwise. We have been going to the ministry almost thrice (Monday Wednesday n Friday) every week since April and those guys have perfected the art of lying,” said Magombeyi.
“The government opened only 41 posts at Mpilo hospital yet they knew 56 doctors needed deployment while clinical directors from all major hospitals have been requesting for more doctors,” added Magombeyi.
According to Magombeyi, the unemployed doctors were told that there were no posts in central hospitals.
“Several calls by Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) leadership and the affected doctors continue to be ignored and we are worried if we are working in tandem in saving people’s lives,” said Magombedze.
In a letter they recently addressed to the Minister of Health and Child Care, they pointed out that the ministry was not clearly communicating with the cadres on why the internship was delaying.
Part of the letter reads,”The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association in this regard, wishes to request for a formal communication from your office on why it is failing to deploy fifteen junior doctors to central hospitals in a country where the healthcare system is seriously struggling to handle under-staffing of doctors. There is a considerable complete disregard of the implications this unnecessary delay has on the career paths of these cadres and the time accountability thereof. The Ministry must be sensitive about this concern and our request therefore that without further delay, deploy these cadres to central hospitals so that they can start their internship under due supervision in accordance with medical regulations of the Medical and Dental Practitioners council of Zimbabwe (MDPC).”
