Morocco’s Medical Brain Drain: Doctor Shortage Persists as Professionals Flee

Morocco still suffers from a lack of medical skills due to the export of its expertise abroad, said Youssef El Fakir, professor at the faculty of medicine, during a meeting on the migration of doctors organized by the Istiqlal group at the Chamber of Advisors. To support his point, he specified that the kingdom has only 30,000 doctors for about 36 million inhabitants, or 7.5 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants, a figure well below the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO): 25 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants.

About 15,000 Moroccan doctors practice in France alone, of which 7,000 were born outside Morocco, and 600 doctors leave Morocco each year, 90% of them heading to Germany, El Fakir further specified, emphasizing that the phenomenon of medical exodus is not unique to Morocco and does not only concern doctors, but also nurses, medical technicians and other health professionals.

The academic also mentioned the issue of recruiting foreign doctors to practice in Morocco. While the new law governing the medical profession, which paves the way for the recruitment of foreign doctors to practice in Morocco, has come into effect, the number of foreign doctors who have requested registration with the Order of Physicians to work in Morocco does not exceed 50 doctors. El Fakir revealed that doctors wishing to practice in Morocco do not come from European or Asian countries, but from African and Arab countries.