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Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Reporter
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has recruited 1 600 nurses from July to date following the approval by Cabinet for the ministry to employ 2 000 more nurses to cushion the high demand for the health practitioners. The health sector requires 8 000 nurses to operate efficiently.

Government had frozen recruitment of nurses in 2014 owing to budgetary limitations.

Officiating at a nurses graduation ceremony at Gweru Provincial Hospital on Friday last week, Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa said Government had so far recruited the 1 600 nurses in the first phase.

He said the remaining 400 would be recruited by January next year.

“You are aware that we have had a problem of nurse shortages,” said Dr Parirenyatwa. “At one stage we had 4 000 unemployed nurses in this country and yet we wanted 8 000 nurses.

“I am glad to say we have so far absorbed 1 600 nurses and this will go a long way in addressing the nurses’ unemployment. We want to ensure that we absorb all the unemployed nurses.”

Dr Parirenyatwa said shortage of midwives in the country had resulted in high maternal deaths in the past few years.

“I am also aware that the total number of midwives in the country is 6 000 who are in the public sector,” he said.

“I was surprised because there is a gap and we need some more. In the private sector, we have only 698 midwives. All of them trained here. The maternal mortality rate is still high.”

The graduation ceremony coincided with the launch of the cervical cancer prevention and control strategy 2017–2020.