Zimbabwe is grappling with a critical shortage of forensic pathologists, a situation driven by brain drain and a lack of interest among doctors to specialise in the field, Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora told Parliament on Wednesday.
Responding to questions during a Q&A session, Mombeshora revealed that the country currently has only one qualified forensic pathologist, creating major challenges in conducting post-mortems, particularly in murder cases.
His remarks came after Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MP Lynett Karenyi asked about government policy regarding medico-legal post-mortem examinations and the requirement for bodies to be transported from across Zimbabwe to Harare for assessment.
“Of late, there have been challenges with postmortems, especially forensic. These specialised procedures are indeed conducted by forensic pathologists who possess distinct training and expertise beyond that of general pathologists.
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“Apparently, we do not have enough forensic pathologists in the country. We have only one qualified forensic pathologist at the moment. We have relied on recruiting from outside the country,” Mombeshora said.
The Health Minister added that the shortage of specialists has left the government struggling to meet demand, stressing that addressing the skills gap remains urgent hence government has recruited three forensic pathologists from Cuba.
“We are all aware that we have had a challenge of brain drain. At some stage, we had more than three in the country who were trained.
“Also, it is a department or a speciality where we have not really seen interest in our own doctors to specialise in. As a result, we have not had enough pathologists,” Mombeshora added.
The minister said the just-recruited Cuban forensic pathologists started work on Wednesday, October 1.
“These will actually help us in terms of carrying out forensic postmortems.
“As a result, it was very difficult for one forensic pathologist to move around the country and in other hospitals, especially our district hospitals,” Mombeshora added.
He told the august house that the mortuaries were not equipped with the requisite equipment needed to carry out forensic pathology.
“As a result, dead bodies have to be moved either to Sally Mugabe, Parirenyatwa or Chitungwiza in Harare and the same in Bulawayo, Mpilo Hospital or United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH).
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“The pathologists will then give days to go to Bulawayo or do pathology examinations here in Harare. We hope that the incoming of the three new forensic pathologists will make their job much easier and enable them to go to other provincial hospitals where the equipment is available and carry out those pathology examinations.”
Asked by another legislator what government would do to stop the exodus of healthcare professionals, Mombeshora responded, “We now have the Health Service Commission in place and they are working on incentives for various sectors in the medical field to see if we can come up with incentives including improved salaries, incentives of those who are working outside metropolitan areas so that we can stop the brain drain and have our own people working here instead of relying on foreign experts.”
He added, “We hope that by next year, we will be training more and then in the coming four years, that is when we may see more forensic pathologists coming out.”
