Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe is set to expand the training of doctors and other health professionals as demand for skilled healthcare workers continues to grow.
This comes as the country works to strengthen its health workforce amid shortages of skilled professionals and the continued migration of doctors and other health workers to other countries.
The Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ) says the growing demand for medical education is creating additional pressure to increase training capacity while ensuring that the quality of training and patient safety are not compromised.
Presenting the council’s operational and strategic outlook recently, MDPCZ research and development committee vice chairperson Dr Blessing Zambuko, said increased enrolment in medical and other health training programmes was one of the emerging trends requiring attention.
“We have recognised that there is a requirement for increasing enrolment for medical students and other health practitioners. The implication for the MDPCZ is that we need to support increasing that capacity for training, while making sure that those coming through the pipeline receive appropriate training and are evaluated appropriately,” he said.
The expansion comes as Zimbabwe seeks to increase its health workforce through recruitment and training, while also dealing with the loss of professionals to international markets.
Dr Zambuko said practitioner mobility was contributing to increased demand for registration and qualification verification, with a growing number of Zimbabweans obtaining medical training outside the country before returning home to practise.
During the period under review, the council registered 70 foreign-trained interns and 18 practitioners under provisional registration, while 50 postgraduate registrars, including locally and foreign-trained practitioners, were registered.
A further 182 practitioners transitioned from general medical officer status to unrestricted practice.
He said the increase in foreign-trained practitioners meant the Council needed to strengthen its ability to verify and assess qualifications obtained outside the country to ensure that only appropriately trained professionals entered the local health system.
“We are seeing quite a number of our citizens sending their children out of the country for medical education and then coming back to practise. We need to be able to more effectively verify and assess qualifications from outside the country as practitioner mobility continues to increase,” Dr Zambuko said.
He also said expanding training should be accompanied by efforts to keep pace with changing international standards of care, growing expectations around patient safety and advances in technology.
“People are moving across the world for practice and training and we are seeing several foreign-trained practitioners coming back to Zimbabwe. We therefore need to be able to more effectively verify and assess qualifications from outside the country while keeping pace with an ever-changing international standard of care,” he added.
The MDPCZ has identified practitioner migration, digitalisation, artificial intelligence and expansion of medical training among the key emerging issues that will shape its strategic priorities through 2030.
The council is responsible for registering and licensing medical and dental practitioners, regulating professional practice and ensuring that training meets the required standards, with the ultimate goal of protecting patients and promoting public health.
