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Robin Muchetu Senior Reporter
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care will not entertain requests from nursing staff who wish to transfer on marital grounds, as they are gobbling tax payers’ funds instead of serving the communities that have seen them through their training, Sunday News can reveal.
The Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Paul Chimedza, said this in response to allegations that nurses in the rural communities of the country were seeking transfers so as to be with their spouses in cities and towns.
In Matabeleland North, there were reports of nurses who literally begged to be employed when Government lifted the ban on nursing recruitment only for the same people to abandon the hospitals and seek transfers once they were in the system.
“As a ministry, we will not entertain stories of nurses wanting to transfer to be with their husbands or wives as they have to fulfil a duty that they trained for and not transfer for such reasons,” said Dr Chimedza.
The minister said nurses were being trained by Government using taxpayers’ money and as such, should be available when deployed to rural areas.
“Taxpayer’s money is being used to train and pay these people and they in turn should serve when the need comes, we cannot deal with people who want to follow their husbands wherever they are. Hatingateedzere vanoda zvevarume isu,” he emphasised.
He said although Government was sensitive to the issue of spouses being close to each other and preserving marriages, it was also not a criterion that could be used to deploy nursing or other hospital staff.
Dr Chimedza said nurses were deployed wherever there was a vacancy and not where nurses saw fit.
The provincial medical director for Matabeleland North, Dr Nyasha Masuka, confirmed that a number of nurses were seeking transfers.
“We had a challenge in Mat North when nurses’ posts were unfrozen and people came in their numbers as they were desperate for jobs but when they were in the system they were now seeking transfers,” said Dr Masuka.
He said a number of nurses were leaving their posts as they were transferring to the cities saying they wanted to be near their spouses. He said the nurses were mostly interested in being transferred to Harare and Bulawayo, shunning the rural areas of Mat North.
He added that this was leaving serious gaps with over 40 nurses having transferred from the province in 2013 alone.
“About 42 nurses left in 2013 alone and we were affected a lot. Now the ministry says a nurse who wants to transfer should resign or get a swap so that we know that we have a vacancy, not just having transfers with posts not filled,” Dr Masuka said.
He said the transfers were stressful to nurse managers who had a torrid time filling the vacancies.
The bonding of nurses by Government after training saw thousands of nurses being stranded as they could not be absorbed into the establishment.
Many have over the years also left the country to seek employment in Sadc countries.
However, Government lifted the bond on nurses until they are in a position to employ them.
Bonding of nurses was introduced in 2007 to avert brain drain.
Many professionals in the medical sector left the country for greener pastures at the height of economic challenges over the past years.
This prompted Government to hold on to the certificates of newly trained nurses to prevent them from leaving the country upon completion of their studies.
Online Reporter