Nursing Exodus: Morocco Faces Healthcare Crisis as Nurses Seek Opportunities Abroad

"In my hospital, if you ask the question: how do you see yourself in ten years? Everyone will tell you: we want to leave," declares Oumaïma, a 24-year-old nurse in Casablanca, to radio-canada. 180 of the 456 nurses recruited for supplementary training in the CEGEPs of Quebec after the launch in 2022 of a new program to recruit 1,000 nurses come from Morocco. The lack of appreciation for the profession, the huge gap in remuneration between doctors and nursing staff, and the working conditions are all factors that push Moroccan nurses to leave the kingdom. For example, Oumaïma earns 6,500 dirhams per month (852 $) in the public sector and her 12-hour shifts, one Sunday out of four, earn her 98 dirhams (13 $) per day at the end of the year. Overtime is not paid.

Zakariae Taabani, provincial secretary of the Moroccan Labor Union (UMT), the largest union in Morocco, which represents 60% of nurses, is aware of this sad reality. "After 4 or 5 years of experience, they want to go elsewhere," he explains, noting that 13 of the 60 nurses in a Casablanca hospital have recently had their file accepted at the same time to immigrate to Canada. According to an official figure, Morocco has 30,000 nurses, and it needs 65,000 more. For its part, the UMT talks about 100,000 more. On the ground, the assessment is bitter. "We have one doctor for 60,000 inhabitants, so we suffer a lot!" exclaims Fedoua Bouhou, the activist for social and associative development who lives in Tarmigte, near Ouarzazate, in southeastern Morocco.

How to address the shortage of nurses when Morocco is expanding health insurance coverage to its entire population. "To succeed in this royal project, we need men and women!" exclaims the physician and professor in Casablanca, Jaâfar Heikel, who is also a doctor of economics. It is not enough to put money and infrastructure. Who will take care of the patients if a good part of them leave? He will add that it is not enough to train more doctors and nurses. He calls for good planning. "He (the Ministry of Health, ed.) must listen to us, improve the working conditions of these nurses, so that they feel good here. Because immigrating is not an easy choice. If they felt better here, they would have stayed," says the union representative Zakariae Taabani.