Will Morocco Succeed in Stopping the Escalating Migration of Doctors?

A “terrifying number” was revealed by an official body concerned with human rights in Morocco, as it showed that 23,000 doctors practice their work in the Kingdom, compared to between 10,000 and 14,000 working in the diaspora.

This prompted the Moroccan Minister of Health, Khaled Ait Taleb, to announce that his country had taken a number of measures to limit the immigration of "white coats,” amid many concerns about the future of the health sector in the Kingdom.

 

Fixing the Situation

Ait Taleb said, during a speech in Parliament on April 24, 2022, that his ministry is "working to take a set of measures, including improving the situation of professionals and their working conditions, to limit the phenomenon of the emigration of medical competencies."

Among the measures is "reforming the situation of practicing the profession by expanding the fields of training (training) in new university hospitals and the process studies."

Ait Taleb pointed out that "the entire health system has been restructured and reformed, in addition to adopting a participatory approach by holding several sectoral social dialogue meetings (the government and health professionals' unions) to discuss many issues that concern the future of the health and social protection sector in the country."

He recalled the February 2022 agreement, according to which the wages of doctors and health professionals would be raised starting next year (2023).

The Minister of Health's actions follow a report issued by the National Council for Human Rights (governmental), which revealed that the Kingdom is suffering from a "hemorrhage of doctors," explaining that a third of them are practicing their work abroad.

The council's report, dated April 22, 2022, added that "almost one in three Moroccan doctors practices [his work] abroad, despite Morocco's urgent need for all its doctors, and even more of them."

He explained that "the sector needs an additional 32,000 doctors, according to the basic standards of the World Health Organization, as well as more than 65,000 health professionals, and it is expected that these needs for human resources will increase rapidly in the future."

The report pointed out that "there is weakness and misuse of human resources, which makes part of them, structures and equipment inoperative, while another part is under pressure."

The emigration of Moroccan doctors to work abroad is due to “the lack of attractiveness of the public health sector, the lack of an accurate network for motivation, and the geographical remoteness of workplaces from them,” according to the report.

 

Big Dilemma

The expert in health policies in Morocco, Tayeb Hicidi, believes that the emigration of doctors represents a “big problem” for the health system due to its size, noting that it “will continue in the future,” referring in the context to studies that confirm the existence of a great desire to emigrate among medical students.

In an interview with Voices of the Maghreb (Washington-based) website, Hicidi pointed out that Morocco's failure to overcome this phenomenon is due to two main factors. The first is related to the lack of a sufficient number of doctors, and the second is related to its failure to preserve the doctors present in Morocco.

The Moroccan expert stressed that this matter poses great challenges, given the high cost of training a single doctor, which amounts to 400,000 dollars, before adding, "If we lose this number of doctors annually, this means that we give them to Western countries."

On the other hand, the spokesman considered that the measures announced by the Ministry of Health regarding this file represent an “important step, but it is not sufficient,” stressing the need to “review the working conditions of doctors in the public and private sectors, improve wages, as well as raise training conditions and improve the doctor’s image in society.”

A study published by the European Journal of Public Health concluded that more than two-thirds of medical students in Morocco are considering emigrating abroad, to provide quality training, better working conditions, and a better life.

A study published on the magazine's website on October 20, 2021, stated that 71.1 percent of the final year medical students in Morocco intend to immigrate abroad, noting that out of every three Moroccan practicing physicians, there is a doctor outside the country.

According to the data of the study, 95.2 percent of students interested in emigrating abroad are dissatisfied with their training in Morocco, and 97 percent are dissatisfied with wages, in addition to the contempt and underestimation of the doctor’s value on social media, reaching 83.6 percent.

The study revealed that Germany was the preferred destination for most Moroccan doctors (34 percent), noting that there was no relationship between the spread of immigration and the students' social and financial status.

It stressed the need to alert public policymakers in the field of health to improve working conditions and the quality of training, in addition to the wages of health professionals to reduce the rate of immigration among medical students.

For his part, Dr. Marwan Abu Hafs emphasized that “working and living conditions are simply better outside Morocco, and opportunities for self-development and professionalism are guaranteed, and when we talk about working abroad, we mean Western Europe and Canada.”

 

Necessary Amendments

In the face of this migration, Morocco has resorted, since 2021, to make a series of amendments to its regulatory law for the practice of the medical profession, especially for foreigners.

On August 23, 2021, the Council of Government approved two draft decrees related to facilitating the practice of medicine by foreign doctors in Morocco, with the aim of filling the shortage of medical human resources in hospitals.

The first draft decree provides procedures to facilitate the practice of medicine by foreigners in Morocco and to harmonize the requirements of this decree with the provisions of the law relating to the simplification of legal steps and administrative procedures.

As for the second decree, it concerns the formation of a “committee that follows up on the practice of medicine by foreigners in Morocco,” and how it will operate.

The Minister of Health, Ait Taleb, had strongly advocated facilitating foreign doctors' access to the medical profession, with the aim of "confronting the severe shortage experienced by the health sector, in terms of human resources."

The minister promised that the law, in its current form, places “impossible” conditions in the face of foreign doctors wishing to practice the profession in Morocco, such as the requirement to reside for 10 continuous years in Morocco, or to marry a Moroccan, a situation that made few foreign doctors able to practice the profession in the Kingdom.

To address this situation, the same conditions were adopted for accepting the work of foreign doctors compared to Moroccans, limited to the condition of restriction to the Schedule of the National Commission for Female Doctors and Physicians (the list of doctors), which, upon obtaining it, grants the right to practice the profession.

With regard to Moroccan doctors abroad, incentive measures have been adopted to encourage them to return to Morocco "by deleting the equivalency requirement for a certificate, or a diploma obtained from a foreign institution,” and assuring that the field professional experience acquired in the countries of the diaspora "is sufficient to dispense with every equivalency condition."

Despite these legal amendments to attract Moroccan and foreign doctors, the health sector in Morocco is still witnessing a severe shortage and “flee” of Moroccan doctors abroad in search of better prospects.

A graduate of the Faculty of Medicine, Abdelilah Bakir, said, "Knowing the unpleasant situation of practicing this profession in terms of equipment for treatment facilities as well as material, I am currently studying German to move to Berlin in the hope of getting an opportunity that meets my ambitions."

He explained to Al-Estiklal: "The desire in the first place was to sacrifice for my compatriots treating them and taking care of them, but the complex problems that our sector suffers from, make the doctor as a culprit, and in some cases, the doctor is described as a criminal. This prompted me to change the idea of ​​working in Morocco."