COVID- 19 and its Impact on Human Resources for Health Deployment: The Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care Perspective

Abstract

This research discusses the impact of COVID-19 on human resources deployment in the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC). Documentary research and in-depth interviews aided in interrogating the impacts of the pandemic on the deployment of the MoHCC health workforce to meet the increased demand and workload especially in COVID-19 red zones. Research pointed to pressure on the deployment of health professionals dealing with disease detection, screening of patients and case management. COVID-19 can be viewed as a test on the Health Service Board’s deployment strategies. Registered nurses’ deployment rose from below 45% to 95% in the last quarter of 2020 resulting in the Treasury adopting a policy shift, easily concurring to increase the establishment of frontline nurses based on workload requirements as well as recruiting from outside the MoHCC. This culminated in an improved nurse-patient- ratio and revitalisation of human resources planning mechanisms leading to the adoption of Information Technology in human resources planning and management processes. The adoption of website-based recruitment and deployment framework improved turnaround time in the deployment of health professionals. As COVID-19 continues, the use of scientific human resources planning tools like WISN are highly recommended in providing essential evidence to inform the basis of deploying health professionals at different Ministry’s health facilities.