Nyashadzaishe Rushwaya
MASVINGO-Zimbabwe has a deficit of 57 543 health workers, especially doctors despite training institutions churning out graduates who on to spend six productive months roaming the streets.
The country is on the World Health Organization (WHO) red list signaling a critical shortage of health workers. Zimbabwe also suffers brain drain as experts and recent graduates find greener pastures in the diaspora.
Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZIMA) President, Dr. Kudzai Masinire said it is regrettable that a graduate doctor spends up to six months looking for employment when their skills are desperately needed.
“It’s regrettable that a doctor can spend five to six months on the streets looking for a job when their skills are needed most,” said Dr. Masinire.
Some 35 000 Zimbabweans, primarily health workers were granted work visa to the UK from June 2023 to June 2025.
Government has attempted to bridge this gap by doubling training capacity for health workers to around 3 400 a year to meet the ever rising demand for qualified personnel. However, the educational pipeline has fundamentally decoupled from the employment system.
The Health Service Board (HSB) and Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) have failed to expand the number of posts required to absorb health workers. Most if not all hospitals haven’t increased their services. In Masvingo province, for example each district has a Government hospital but patients still travel to Masvingo to access specialized services like radiology and scans.
This structural failure ensures that Zimbabwe’s investment in training its youth ultimately subsidizes wealthier nations.
The strain on training quality beyond the absorption crisis, the rapid, well-intentioned decentralization of training institutions and universities is now straining the quality of training.
Traditionally, central hospitals serve as the core clinical teaching bases and they are now stretched thin. These institutions simultaneously accommodate three competing streams, increased local cohorts from the decentralized universities. The triple demand model risks diluting the quality of clinical experience for all trainees; are there enough patient cases, specialized equipment, and most critically, enough supervising senior faculty to maintain world class standards for everyone?
Dr. Masinire added that training space is not adequate and this has a bearing on the final products.
Private hospitals aren’t allowed to offer internship to recent graduates.
A Financial Warning for Students
For prospective students and their parents, a severe risk lurks in the lack of regulatory clarity regarding foreign medical degrees. Citizens are spending tens of thousands of dollars on training in universities, sometimes in the Caribbean or Asia countries, only to return and find their qualifications are not accredited with the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ) or recognized by the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE)
This is a tragic financial and human loss. Graduates are denied the opportunity to work and end up “roaming the streets”. The solution is clear and immediate: “We need to have clarity… people need to access this information with a click of a button”
The MDPCZ and ZIMCHE must produce and maintain a definitive, easily searchable public registry of all internationally recognized universities acceptable for subsequent registration in Zimbabwe, shielding families from exploitation. While the MDPCZ uses partners like the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) to verify foreign credentials, this complex verification process must be simplified into a transparent, preemptive public notice.
Defining Zimbabwe’s Future
The issues of absorption, quality strain, and regulatory failure demand an executive, synchronized policy response. The only way forward, as articulated by the MAZ, is through a National Medical Training Indaba,
This high-level summit must bring together all critical stakeholders: the Ministry of Health, the Health Service Board, ZIMCHE, the MDPCZ, academia (deans), and professional bodies like the MAZ. The Indaba’s mandate must be to deliver a codified, 10-year Human Resources for Health (HRH) strategy.
Key decisions must include:
Reconciling annual training intake with funded establishment posts.
Resolving the national identity, Are we training primarily for domestic sufficiency to meet the 57,543 shortage, or are we formalizing a “strategic export” policy that generates revenue from our investment?. Lastly will be the
Accreditation Expansion, Developing a clear Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to accredit world-class private hospitals as clinical training institutes, immediately expanding infrastructure and access to specialized equipment
If the country fails to eliminate the housemanship backlog and clarify its strategic direction, the crisis will only deepen. Our most valuable resource, freshly qualified doctors will continue to be turned away, strengthening foreign health systems while the lives of the Zimbabwean people hang in the balance. The time for comprehensive action is now.
