Study: Brain Drain Remains Pressing Challenge for Morocco’s Medical sector

Rabat – A new study by a group of Moroccan researchers has established that one-third of doctors leave Morocco after graduation.

Five Moroccan researchers from the Laboratory of Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hassan II University, published the study titled “Migration intention of final year medical students” in the European Journal of Public Health in October 2021.

Led by Karim Sylla, S. El Ouadih, K. Barknan, S. Hassoune, and S. Nani, the study explores the migration intention of final year Moroccan medical students.

To answer their research’s main question — Why does a considerable number of Moroccan medical graduates choose to emigrate? — the researchers conducted a cross-sectional study throughout the month of January 2021.

251 Moroccan final-year medical students participated in the study, submitting their answers to self-administered questionnaires through Google Forms.

After collecting the data, the researchers concluded that 70.1% of final year students intend to leave Morocco after graduation and that 63.6% of the would-be emigrants were female.

The economic attractiveness of foreign countries is most students’ main reason for wanting to leave Morocco, the study found, noting that 34% of the students consider Germany as a future destination.

The researchers quantified factors that “pushed” the students away from Morocco and factors that “pulled” them towards opportunities abroad. Among the pull factors, the students listed better working conditions (99%), better training (97.6%), and higher quality of life (97.2%).

As for the push factors, those surveyed expressed their dissatisfaction with wages (97%), training (95.2%), and the media’s denigration of doctors (83.6%) in Morocco.

The study did not find any significant correlation between migration intentions and the socio-economic profile of students.

As for the research’s significance, the study’s findings provide a much-need insight into one of the main reasons why staff shortages remain a pressing concern at Moroccan hospitals while a sufficiently high number of students graduate from the country’s medical faculties every year. The ratio of doctors per population in Morocco is 7.3 per 10,000 people when the recommended ratio is 15.3 doctors per 10,000 people, the study reported.

Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb addressed the professional shortage in January this year, noting that only 32,000 doctors and 65,000 nurses serve 36 million Moroccans.

To address the Moroccan medical sector’s lingering issue with brain drain, the researchers recommended, “The health policymakers should improve working conditions, training quality, and salary of health workers to reduce medical student migration.”

The study also concluded that “reducing the medical student’s migration is crucial to build and maintain a strong healthcare system.”