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Rabat – Professor Azzedine Brahimi, the director of the Biotechnology Laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rabat, has warned of the dire challenges facing Morocco’s health sector amid an acute shortage of medical emergency staff.
“We are left with only 20 doctors practicing in urgent care in Morocco,” Professor Brahimi said on Saturday.
He emphasized that it is “time to increase the number of practitioners in this speciality.”
Brahimi made his remarks during the 5th International Conference of the Moroccan Society of Emergency Medicine
He cited King Mohammed VI’s vision to expand health coverage, emphasizing that “effective emergency medicine is more than ever an absolute priority.”
The professor also recalled the contribution of military medicine in strengthening the sector thanks to the “involvement and commitment of military doctors.”
He said, “During the pandemic many things have been proven, including the indisputable fact that without emergency medicine that responds to crisis, it is not possible to get out of the crisis.”
Professor Brahimi said that improving the emergency sector is a call to save the lives of Moroccans, reiterating his emphasis that more work should be done to come to terms with the recurrent challenges facing the country’s medical sector.
This is not the first time that Moroccan health professionals discuss the shortage of medical human resources in Morocco.
In May, Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb emphasized that the country was in dire need of at least 32,000 doctors and 65,000 nurses to boost its health sector.
In addition to shortage in personnel, Ait Taleb also warned against lack of equipment in Moroccan hospitals.
He said Morocco’s medical personnel deficit stands at 97,161, spread over 32,387 medical doctors and 64,774 nurses as well as other medical practitioners.
In a report it published earlier this year, the Moroccan health ministry cited an insufficient budget of MAD 18.68 billion ($2.1 billion) for the 2020 fiscal year, emphasizing that this led to a limited recruitment of new medical personnel.
