Over 4,000 Zimbabwean doctors and nurses left the country in 2021

A total of 4,000 doctors and nurses have left Zimbabwe since 2021, a senior official at the Health Services Board (HSB) confirmed to Reuters over the weekend.

HSB chairperson Dr Paulinus Sikosana said the figure included 1,700 registered nurses who resigned last year and more than 900 who left this year.

In June this year health workers who included nurses, doctors, pharmacists, radiologists and other medical professionals in the country went on strike demanding to paid their salaries in U.S. dollars given the local currency has been ravaged by inflation.

The health professionals are demanding US$540 a month, a figure they used to receive in 2018 before the local currency collapsed.

It’s believed the majority of doctors and nurses leaving Zimbabwe are finding work in the United Kingdom where their skills are meeting huge shortages there.

Zimbabwe is facing an economic crisis due to hyperinflation, a rapidly devaluing local currency and declining manufacturing output.