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Rabat – Morocco has announced its decision to open up the health care sector to foreign experts, with the aim of curbing the shortage and deficit of healthcare workers.
Morocco’s Economy Minister Mohamed Benchaaboun announced the news Wednesday during a presentation at the launch ceremony of the project to generalize Morocco’s social security.
King Mohammed VI chaired the launch ceremony at his royal palace in Fez.
In his presentation, Benchaaboun acknowledged that the health care system faces challenges that should be addressed through different solutions, including opening up the healthcare system to foreign investors and experts in the field.
The official said the generalization of social security requires taking up a “set of challenges” to face different deficiencies the sector faces, including the “important deficit in human resources, and their unequal geographical distribution.”
Benchaaboun announced Morocco’s plans to open the door for international health institutions to work and invest in Morocco.
Deficiencies in the health sector
Several reports listed deficiencies and shortcomings from which Morocco’s health sector has suffered, emphasizing the importance of undertaking a vigilant reform to overcome the challenges.
A 2020 report from the High Commission for Planning (HCP) said the sector continues to suffer from a shortage in qualified human resources, as well as an “insufficient budget.”
The report also emphasized territorial disparities in terms of the distribution and availability of practitioners in the sector.
The HCP said that more than 50% of Moroccan cardiologists and endocrinologists work in major cities, including Rabat, Casablanca, and the surrounding regions.
In recent years, health professionals held strikes to protest the shortage of human resources.
A report from the Health Ministry in 2019 said the North African country is in dire need of 32,000 doctors and 64,774 nurses and medical practitioners.
What should be done to advance Morocco’s health sector
Benchaaboun emphasized the encouragement of international health institutions to capitalize on “successful experiences.”
The official also called for intensified capacity-building initiatives for health professionals.
“Accompanying measures must also be adopted and will be aimed at intensifying training programs and consolidating medical skills of health professionals so that they can meet the demand, which will increase at a rapid pace with the implementation of this major societal project,” Benchaaboun said.
During the event, King Mohammed VI chaired the signing of three framework agreements on the generalization of basic compulsory health insurance to benefit professionals and self-employed and non-salaried persons exercising a private activity.
The first agreement touches on the generalization of compulsory basic health insurance for the benefit of different workers, including people who work in trades, handicrafts, as well as independent service providers subject to the unified system of professional contributions.
This will also involve people from the auto-entrepreneur system or the accounting system, which includes more than 800,000 members.
The second agreement covers the generalization of basic compulsory health insurance for the benefit of artisans and craft professionals, estimated at 500,000 members.
The third agreement concerns the generalization of basic compulsory health insurance for farmers. The agreement will benefit approximately 1.6 million.
