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Rabat- A distressing video by a French tourist in a Casablanca hospital has triggered anger and condemnation from Moroccan social media.
In the video, taken at Ibn Rochd Hospital (CHU), patients are seen lying on the unhygienic floor of CHU’s emergency wing. No emergency equipment, doctors, or nurses can be seen, but only the weary faces of patients and their relatives waiting to be treated.
The tourist filmed a young woman who had suffered from a brain hemorrhage and had been waiting for a doctor from 1 a.m. until 4 a.m. but still had not yet been treated.
Shocked by the sight, the French woman lamented: “People are dying, and if you don’t have money you can’t get treated… do you find this normal? In a country like Morocco that prefers to construct roads and other things rather than treat the sick.”
Since Tuesday, July 31, the video has been circulating on social media. In response, the hospital published a press release on Wednesday, describing the video content as misleading while providing its own clarifications.
The statement claimed that the lady who appeared in the video underwent brain imaging soon after she entered the hospital, but since it revealed that she did not suffer from any serious injuries, the neurologist allowed her to leave the hospital.
It further stated, regarding the emergency rooms, “The emergency department receives hundreds of patients daily from all of Casablanca, Settat, and outside the region… for example, on 31/7/2018 [the day the video was filmed and published] it had received 214 cases.”
Morocco’s tragic health system
The healthcare system in Morocco is notorious for its many flaws, especially when it comes to public hospitals which are lacking in equipment, medicine, and medical staff.
As for health insurance coverage, only 60 percent of Moroccans are covered by the Compulsory Health Insurance (AMO) and Medical Assistance Plan (RAMED), both of which are government initiatives to improve the healthcare system.
The 2011 Constitution dictates equal access of citizens to health care, basic medical coverage, solidarity, health equality, and equal distribution of health resources.
Unfortunately, more than 25 percent of Moroccans—8.5 million people—do not have access to medical care, especially the poor who live in rural areas, according to the World Bank 2017 Economic Memorandum.
To develop the health system, the government is investing efforts.
Recently, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pledged to support Morocco’s ambition to extend the national health insurance to low-income and disadvantaged people.
RAMED, which has been in place for six years, extended health coverage to 60 percent of the Moroccan population.
Morocco’s Minister of Health Anas Doukkali previously said that while the results are “honorable,” there is still a long way to go for health care to be more effective and inclusive of all low-income and disadvantaged people.
