Morocco’s Opposition Party to Inspect COVID-19 Hospital Readiness Amid Social Media Concerns

The objective of this tour for the opposition party is to know the capacity of the hospitals to cope with a resurgence of coronavirus cases, reports Telquel. It also aims to find out about medical and paramedical staff, stocks of medicines, pharmaceutical products and medical equipment, as well as the bed capacity of the intensive care units.

This mission, requested by the president of the Istiqlal group, has already received the approval of the commission of social sectors in the first Chamber, according to its president, Saïda Ait Bouali. The next step is the green light from the Parliament’s office. In this regard, a meeting is announced as soon as the deputies return from their holidays, announced for September 1.

The health centers concerned by this parliamentary mission are the Mohammed VI hospital in Tangier, the regional hospital in Ouarzazate, the Ibn Rochd University Hospital in Casablanca, the Ibn Toufail University Hospital in Marrakech, the Avicenne University Hospital in Rabat and the Mohammed VI University Hospital in Oujda. For Saïda Ait Bouali, this list may change when the technical sheet is drawn up after the approval of the parliamentarians’ office.

The Mamounia hospital is of particular concern to the Istiqlal group. Cited among the health centers concerned by the exploratory parliamentary mission, it has been experiencing a health crisis situation for a few months. In this hospital, three directors have succeeded each other since the start of the pandemic and have all laid down their duties.

Worse, the resident doctors of this regional university hospital (CHR) are withdrawing from the voluntary work they have been providing since March "due to the lack of safety, accommodation and isolation", but also "because of the lack of a clear vision on the period to come". On August 17, they even observed a sit-in in front of the CHR.