Morocco Faces Critical Shortage of 100,000 Doctors and Nurses, Far Below WHO Standards

The Covid-19 crisis has helped to reveal the major deficit in health personnel, medical equipment and university hospital centers (CHU). Morocco has around 25,000 doctors, more than half of whom work in the private sector, reports Maroc hebdo. In detail, Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra hold more than 56% of the private doctors and 39% of the public ones. During these ten months of health crisis, the health personnel, already understaffed, had to redouble their efforts to cope with the coronavirus epidemic.

For El Mountadar Alaoui, secretary general of the Independent Union of Public Sector Physicians (SIMPS), doctors and nurses have been extremely overwhelmed by this pandemic. "I recall that they are already working 4 to 5 times more due to the understaffing in the sector. But the year 2020 has been catastrophic for them and extremely stressful. Because in addition to this deficit in human resources, they were confronted with a lack of materials and equipment," he said.

Morocco also suffers from a lack of specialist doctors. "Specialties are disappearing in Morocco. We noticed it during this Covid-19 period. We recorded a huge deficit in terms of doctors specialized in resuscitation." Out of a population of 36 million, the kingdom has 700 specialists, 290 of whom are in the public sector. "In several hospitals, it was the specialized nurses in resuscitation who took over, due to the lack of doctors, even though the latter are essential to properly treat a patient in intensive care," regrets El Mountadar Alaoui.

To these dysfunctions are added the departures of doctors to France and other foreign countries. According to the union leader, nearly 30% of doctors leave Morocco each year, 7,000 of whom end up in France. In addition to training new Moroccan doctors (3,000 to 3,500), the kingdom must also build other university hospital centers (CHU).