Morocco’s COVID-19 Crisis: Hospital Distrust and Late Treatment Fuel Surge

The case of a patient declared late, then that of a girl (who contracted the virus in her workplace in early September, keeping it to herself), in a high-density building in Sidi Othmane, southeast of Casablanca, are revealing of the carelessness of populations who only go to the health center in a critical condition.

Like the two cases, many patients stay at home, self-medicate and arrive too late at the health center. "We are forced to hospitalize them," says epidemiologist Jaafar Heikel, a specialist in infectious diseases. Refusal of the therapeutic protocol, poorly accessible testing system, fear of being hospitalized and above all the anguish of the public hospital, are all reasons that slow down screening, reports Le Monde.

The delay in screening raises fears among specialists of an increase in serious cases and an overload of laboratories and hospitals. In addition, in the kingdom, 99% of patients registered with the health insurance fund prefer to be treated in the private sector. Public hospitals are losing credibility due to the double lack of staff and equipment. The dissemination of a video at the end of August, showing the chaos in a hospital in Marrakech, has finished tarnishing the reputation of the public sector.

It should be noted that for a few weeks now, a home monitoring system has made it possible to monitor patients from their homes, remotely monitored by health personnel. "And yet people don’t have confidence. They still fear seeing the ambulance arrive as was the case at the start of the health crisis," laments a biologist in Rabat.