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Marrakech – In the study halls of Morocco’s medical schools, students are not preparing to serve their country. They are preparing to leave it.
A recent report by Le Monde Afrique, titled “In Morocco, the alarming exodus of doctors,” has shed light on the scale of the kingdom’s medical brain drain, revealing that approximately 700 doctors leave the country every year – roughly one-third of all graduates.
The figure, which the outlet described as “stable but probably underestimated,” coincides with a June Ministry of Health report estimating the country’s total need for health professionals at 83,000 for the 2025-2026 period. Of those vacancies, nearly 28,000 are for doctors.
The numbers are difficult to absorb. A country that cannot afford to lose a single doctor is watching hundreds walk away every year, with no sign of the bleeding slowing. The gap between what the nation needs and what it has grows wider with every graduating class that packs its bags instead of opening a practice. It makes one wonder what kind of system drives its own healers to abandon it.
Djamila Chekrouni, an economist specializing in migration dynamics and a professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, told Le Monde this is not a temporary phenomenon but a “long-term trend,” driven by a failing health system at home and aggressive recruitment abroad.
“Doctors don’t just leave a country for a better salary,” she said. “They leave a system that doesn’t offer them sufficient professional prospects or working conditions that match their skills.”
The crisis has deeply personal dimensions. Nour, a 24-year-old seventh-year medical student in Oujda whose name was changed to protect her identity, recalled a night shift during which a patient died of cardiac arrest.
Speaking to the French publication, she recounted the moment with visible weight: “I ran for fifteen minutes through the corridors looking for adrenaline to inject. There was none anywhere.” She was working in a university hospital – a reference institution. “In the first year, maybe 30 percent of us planned to leave,” she added. “Today, I don’t know anyone who wants to stay.”
France remains the top destination for departing doctors, followed by Canada, Belgium, Germany, and the Gulf states. Chekrouni noted that doctors gravitate toward countries combining medical labor shortages, favorable recruitment policies, and stronger professional environments.
But emigration does not always succeed. Kaoutar, 29, returned to Morocco in 2024 after two years specializing in family medicine in the United States, forced back by visa complications. She now works temporary replacement assignments in rural areas. “Where the needs are greatest, the health infrastructure is not adequate,” she told Le Monde. “You feel useless. You have nothing to offer patients because the basic equipment is missing.”
She described the system bluntly: “We work in a system of makeshift fixes.” Two years after returning, she continues applying abroad. “I’m not leaving for money or family reasons,” she confided. “I’m leaving just to be able to practice my profession properly.”
The departures compound an already severe deficit. Rural areas and in-demand specialties are hardest hit. “The more conditions deteriorate for those who stay, the more the temptation to leave grows,” Chekrouni warned.
The August 2025 deaths of eight women during cesarean sections at Agadir’s Hassan II hospital triggered public outrage and a youth-led mobilization under the GenZ 212 collective. The government pledged staffing reinforcements, improved conditions, and hospital investment – but those commitments, Le Monde reported, “are still struggling to materialize.”
Although Le Monde cited Morocco’s 2022 health expenditure of 6% of GDP – below international benchmarks – and claimed the sector had long been overshadowed by infrastructure and sporting projects, the French publication failed to mention, whether intentionally or out of editorial selectiveness, the significant reforms currently underway.
Morocco’s 2026 budget allocates MAD 140 billion ($14 billion) to health and national education – a 16% increase from the previous year – alongside the creation of more than 27,000 budgetary posts across the two sectors.
The government is also expanding university hospital infrastructure nationwide through a program to build six university hospital centers, backed by an investment of more than MAD 20.6 billion ($2.06 billion) and providing a combined capacity of nearly 3,807 beds.
The CHU Mohammed VI in Agadir is already operational, the new Ibn Sina hospital in Rabat is projected to be completed in 2026, and the CHU in Laayoune is in the final phase of construction. Additional university hospitals are under construction in Beni Mellal, Guelmim, and Errachidia.
Fifteen hospital projects are expected to be completed in 2026, adding approximately 3,000 beds. The government has also completed or is finalizing the rehabilitation of 1,400 primary healthcare facilities and has launched a second phase covering another 1,600 centers under a MAD 6 billion ($600 million) program, including 500 scheduled for completion this year.
Medical-training capacity has expanded from 2,650 places in 2019 to 6,414 in 2025, alongside the opening of four new medical faculties in Guelmim, Beni Mellal, Drâa-Tafilalet, and Laayoune.
Chekrouni framed the core challenge simply: “The real challenge is not to prevent doctors from leaving, but to create the conditions that make them want to stay – or come back.”
