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Rabat – Moroccan nurses and health technicians have raised serious concerns about the state of the country’s healthcare system, especially the emergency transport and ambulance services.
In a report sent to Health Minister Amine Tehraoui, the National Office of the Independent Union of Nurses urged the ministry to take urgent action to fix what they called a “ticking time bomb.”
The report detailed major dysfunctions in the transportation of critical patients and pregnant women, noting that there has been a long delay in preparing a national plan to handle emergencies and disasters. This, the union said, is despite clear hospital regulations and ministerial memos, dating back to 2001 and 2010, requiring strict procedures for hospital-to-hospital transfers.
According to the report, failure to respect these legal requirements has turned the issue into a crisis. The shortage of staff, poor ambulance equipment, and frequent traffic accidents have left nurses and technicians at risk of legal prosecution when things go wrong, despite not being responsible for the system’s failures, the report states.
The report pointed to midwives, anesthesia and intensive care nurses, multi-skilled nurses, and mental health professionals as the most affected groups. These professionals, it said, “bear the consequences of poor organization without any legal protection or fair compensation.”
Administrative and logistical chaos
The nurses’ union listed a series of administrative and logistical problems, including orders for transfers being signed without administrative supervision, a lack of legally approved treatment protocols, and nurses being forced to leave their posts without official service notes.
The union also cited reports of overcrowded emergency rooms, poor coordination between hospitals, and inadequate ambulance equipment, with many vehicles lacking safety belts or proper maintenance. In some cases, hospitals even charged families for transport that should have been free.
The report also raised legal issues, noting that the absence of medical prescriptions or supervision during transfers leaves nurses vulnerable. Some have even been detained following the death of patients during transport due to bureaucratic complications.
With too few ministry-owned ambulances, nurses are often forced to accompany patients in municipal or private vehicles without legal backing, under threat of disciplinary action, adds the report. The union criticized the fact that nurses are still compensated under the standard “per kilometer” rate used for general civil servants, despite the high risks and difficult conditions they face.
The union called on the Ministry of Health to urgently engage with their demands and implement deep reforms to the medical transport system.
The report comes as the Moroccan healthcare system is under fire, with recent protests revealing serious dysfunctions within the sector. In mid-September, protests began at the Hassan II regional hospital in Agadir after the death of at least eight women who underwent cesarean surgeries.
Protesters criticized poor services at the hospital, crowdedness, shortage of medical staff and medicine, and lack of equipment. The protests spread to other hospitals across the country, eventually leading to the nationwide GenZ 212 protests that rocked Morocco.
