Morocco Explores Health Cooperation with Cuba Amid Doctor Shortage

The Minister of Health, Khalid Ait Taleb, held a session with the Cuban ambassador to Morocco, Javier Dómokos Ruiz at the ministry’s headquarters, say Cuban diplomatic sources, specifying that the fields of health and biotechnology were at the heart of the exchanges. The two parties studied the actions to be taken to effectively respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. Cuba is willing to "share its experiences with Morocco in the fields of health and biotechnology, two areas in which it enjoys wide international recognition," said the Cuban diplomat during the meeting.

The meeting comes at the right time, especially since Morocco is currently working to extend medical coverage to the entire population. In this sense, the government had expressed, a few weeks ago, its intention to call on the expertise of foreign doctors to strengthen their Moroccan counterparts as part of the implementation of the health system reform. Ait Taleb specified at the end of April that this reform involves the creation of management and governance bodies, namely the higher instance for integrated health legislation, the regional health agencies and the territorial health groups. He also insisted on equal treatment between Moroccan and foreign doctors.

In the field of health, several countries such as Italy and the French overseas departments and territories have called on Cuban doctors for support during the health crisis. Cuba has also been developing cooperation programs in the field of health and literacy with most sub-Saharan African countries for decades, in which Cuban doctors are deployed free of charge. However, the cooperation is sometimes paid, according to José Luis Rodriguez Garcia, former Minister of the Economy, who explains that thanks to this measure, Cuba has generated an average of more than $11 billion per year between 2011 and 2015.