Corruption Plagues Moroccan Healthcare System, Investigation Reveals

In most health facilities, corruption exceeds imaginable limits. Customers are daily mistreated by agents, insatiable and greedy for ill-gotten wealth.

In an investigation conducted by the daily Assabah, it appears that in some public hospitals and private clinics, unscrupulous health professionals do not hesitate to trade the health of citizens, ignoring all the codes of honor of their profession. However, the investigation points out, it is not generalized. Professional conscience is still in place in many health facilities.

In the public sector, the newspaper points to the extortion of funds at different levels. It starts with the security guard at the entrance, who must be bribed to avoid queuing and thus save precious time. If a citizen wants to see a doctor, he must pay cash for his right of passage. If he does not, he will be abandoned.

Regarding the private sector, everything is payable and this can be acceptable in a market logic, except that being cheated and paying part of the bill "under the table" is not. In addition, there are bribes to benefit from care as a priority.

The newspaper cites for example the immediate recourse to surgery in case of childbirth in the private sector. Practically all the clinics immediately offer cesarean delivery, even if the condition of the mother and the baby does not justify it at all.