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- Zimbabwe’s two-decade economic collapse is hitting new lows with inflation of more than 750%.
- A certificate that doctors need to work abroad may now require state approval, according to the Zimbabwe Major Hospital Physicians Association.
- Many of the country’s doctors and teachers have left to find work in South Africa, the UK, and other countries.
Zimbabwe is seeking to tighten the rules on how a certificate that its doctors need to get work abroad is issued when medical professionals flee the country’s economic collapse.
The so-called “Certificate of Good Reputation” issued by the Zimbabwe Council of Physicians and Dentists may now need prior approval from the state, said the Zimbabwe Major Hospital Physicians Association.
Professional bodies rely on the document as clearance proof that physicians seeking work and internships in a foreign country, among other things, do not have outstanding disciplinary issues regarding patient care.
“The CGS is never issued by a government anywhere in the world,” the doctors association said in a Twitter post.
Zimbabwe’s two-decade economic collapse is hitting new lows with inflation of more than 750% and the country’s currency collapsing. Food and fuel shortages are common and a quarter of the population, including many of the country’s doctors and teachers, have left to find work in South Africa, the UK and other countries.
“This has a bearing, as the government determines who leaves the country,” Aaron Musara, general secretary of the doctors’ association, said in an interview Monday.
“The government is trying to retain staff at a time when it cannot keep them” happy in their work, he said.
Jasper Chimedza, Zimbabwe’s permanent secretary of health, did not return calls seeking comment.
The southern African nation’s health sector has not been spared from the broader economic crisis. It has often been hit hard by strikes lasting several months due to low wages and a shortage in public hospitals of everything from drugs to personal protective equipment needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Doctors earn salaries starting at Z $ 9,000 ($ 110) per month. The council, which has 3,371 registered physicians in the country, did not immediately respond to email inquiries.
