Harare (New Ziana)-The Harare City Council has re-opened three of the nine clinics that it closed in 2020 following an exodus of nurses, an official has said.

The council, which requires 1 000 nurses to efficiently run its clinics, cited the loss of half the number to local and international organisations as the reason for closing some of its clinics.

Clinics which were closed include Southerton, Matapi and Highlands Poly Clinics, while six others namely Mt Pleasant, Borrowdale, Avondale, Braeside, Glen Norah and Highlands Family Health Services remained open for Covid-19 vaccinations only.

“We reopened 3 of the 9 clinics that were last operational in July 2020 namely Avondale satellite clinic, Glen Norah satellite and Highlands Poly Clinic,” the council said on its Twitter account.

Council spokesperson Michael Chideme told New Ziana that more clinics would be opened when additional nurses are recruited.

“We lost more than half of our staff compliment. Our nurses are leaving us, they are going to other countries in search of better packages. We have recruited enough nurses to be able to run those clinics.

“We hope to re-open more clinics once we get more locum nurses,” he said.

Meanwhile the city’s Mabvuku Polyclinic has also started offering caesarean services.

“Council intends to roll out the service to three more centres,” said Chideme.

New Ziana