Broke Harare Reopens Three Clinics

Milton Sasa

Harare City Council has reopened three of the nine clinics that had been closed since July 2020. The reopened clinics are Avondale satellite clinic, Glen Norah satellite clinic, and Highlands PCC. The city of Harare made the decision to shut several of its clinics due to shortage of nurses.

According to the city health director Dr Prosper Chonzi, the shutdown was intended to rationalize the available staff while continuing to provide full health care at the clinics that remained open.

“They were closed because we didn’t have enough nurses to manage them, the other things were there including equipment and medicines. We just didn’t have the nurses,” Chonzi said.

Harare city observed that nurses were leaving council to work outside the country and for local non-
governmental organizations that provided competitive salaries, thereby crippling the health-care delivery system.

“They were leaving for greener pastures outside the country and even within the country they were joining Non-Governmental Organizations,” Chonzi added.

However, the council has begun recruiting nurses with attractive remuneration rates.

“We approached council and they allowed us to recruit nurses on locum basis and we asked to pay competitive rates. We are now getting a few more that are coming because of the locums,” Chonzi said.

The opening of more council clinics is planned in the near future as more nurses keep coming on board, with the Harare city council optimistic that it will eventually be able to open all the clinics.