AS the government struggles to fill vacancies left by health personnel migrating to the greener pastures abroad, public health institutions are set to lose more skilled staff to private hospitals in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

Foreign hospitals and other institutions have found a ready "pool" of potential personnel in Zimbabwe, where skilled people are leaving a country facing caught in its worst economic recession to seek employment abroad.

Advertisements by international recruitment and immigration agencies are a common feature in local newspapers as foreign companies take advantage of the parlous state of Zimbabwe's economy. One such agency, Pearls International Nursing Agency based in the UK, has been running an advertisement in The Daily News inviting applications from registered nurses on behalf of Australian and Canadian health institutions.

Two weeks ago, Thomas Zigora, the chief executive officer of the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, conceded that the hospital could not cope with the demand for nurses as some of the few trained nurses available were leaving the country for better pay and working conditions in Britain. President Mugabe has in the past rebuked Britain for "coming in the dead of night" to steal nurses, doctors and pharmacists from Zimbabwe.