The government is targeting to recruit approximately 130 000 workers from the current 64 000 amid chronic shortage of specialists in the health sector.
This was revealed by Health and Child Care minister Douglas Mombeshora at Umboe Clinic in Makonde district during a visit by a World Health Organisation (WHO) delegation last week.
Mombeshora said the situation was not looking good as the government was finding it difficult to retain even community health workers to help in the fight against cervical cancer.
The government has rolled out a programme to fight cervical cancer in rural communities with assistance from WHO.
“As I have said, we have a shortage of community health workers who are very critical in the mobilisation of cervical cancer screening.
“We have 64 000 health workers and we need to increase the number to 128 000 by 2028 so there is need to train and retain our personnel by giving them good incentives,” Mombeshora said.
His sentiments were echoed by acting WHO representative to Zimbabwe, Sarah Wanyoike, who said although Zimbabwe had made great strides in the fight against cervical cancer, it should source more resources and increase the number of village health workers and other medical specialists in the country.
“Zimbabwe has made a lot of effort towards eliminating cervical cancer by 2030. They should source for more funds to keep up the momentum and increase the number of health workers in the country,” she said.
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Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally with around 660 000 new cases and around 350 000 deaths recorded in 2022.
