The Government has increased application fees for nurses’ confirmation letters and certificates by 100 per cent, from US$150 to US$300.
The new fees were revealed in a letter by Nurses Council of Zimbabwe registrar Mercy Chaka dated 11 March 2022. She wrote:
The Nurses Council of Zimbabwe wishes to advise nurses that the approved fees for application for a certificate of good standing (CGS) and application for the confirmation letters for all the nurses residing in Zimbabwe and outside Zimbabwe is now US$300 and is with effect from January 1, 2022.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enock Dongo told NewsDay that the new fees were unfair and meant to block nurses from leaving the country for greener pastures. Said Dongo:
This is the most expensive verification.
In some of the countries, it is actually free to get a letter of good standing and now Zimbabwe charges US$300, which is not being given as salaries to the civil servants themselves.
Nurses will need three to four months without eating to raise such an amount.
That is really ridiculous, they are punishing health workers.
Health workers have left the country due to poor working conditions and salaries.
We now have a lot of practitioners who have left the country in search of greener pastures and we have shortages in our hospitals, so it’s a strategy that they have come up with to stop that.
This is totally wrong and unacceptable in a democratic country.
There is no way that you can force workers to work for you.
People have the right to work for the employer of their choice.
A CGS is a confirmation letter issued by a professional body to a sister body as clearance for a health worker.
It is given to a healthcare worker with no pending disciplinary issues regarding patient care and relations with colleagues and it also confirms that the holder is a qualified nurse.
Zimbabwe has been losing qualified and experienced workers in the health sector to other countries, with 2 200 health workers having left the country in 2021.