Tangier Hospital Crisis: Patients Face Months-Long Waits for Critical Care

It takes several months to get a medical appointment at the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Tangier, described as an exceptional establishment and a reference center for healthcare in the region. "I requested a medical consultation with an endocrinologist, and they scheduled an appointment for me in 6 months," says Fatima, a 45-year-old diabetic patient in Tanja24. In the absence of an alternative, she resigns herself as her health condition deteriorates. Like her, many patients find themselves in the same predicament. According to several sources and testimonies from other patients, the waiting time can sometimes reach a year in sensitive medical specialties such as oncology and cardiology.

According to hospital staff, these delays are explained by a lack of human resources, particularly medical specialists, but also the growing demand for medical services due to the rapid demographic growth of the city and neighboring regions. Created to be a reference medical center in northern Morocco and attracting thousands of patients each year, the University Hospital Center of Tangier is now facing growing challenges due to the enormous pressure exerted by the number of patients flocking there, not only from the city, but from all regions of northern Morocco. "We are doing our best to meet the needs of patients, but in these conditions, it becomes difficult to manage appointments efficiently," confirms a medical source within the center, stating that certain medical services suffer from obvious imbalances in the distribution of medical teams, leading to the accumulation of appointments in certain specialties, such as nephrology and neurosurgery.