A mother has asked Morocco’s Health Ministry to investigate two private clinics in Larache after they allegedly refused to examine her 14-month-old son during a late-night medical emergency, Hespress reported on July 20.
The family, visiting from Rabat, said the child had a high fever, excessive salivation and was nearly unconscious when Larache Clinic and Lixus Clinic turned them away because no paediatrician was available.
Doctors at the public Lalla Meryem provincial hospital later admitted and treated the child, who recovered, according to the complaint filed with the Health Ministry and the government’s General Secretariat.
The mother said the child’s regular paediatrician had offered to brief the clinics’ duty doctor by telephone, but both establishments still declined to provide care. She asked authorities to determine whether the refusals breached professional and legal obligations covering emergency treatment.
Larache Clinic Director Mehdi Bricha confirmed that his facility had refused the case, saying it lacked an overnight paediatrician, paediatric intensive-care capacity and equipment needed to manage a potentially high-risk patient.
Bricha said Larache had only two paediatric specialists and that neither worked with private clinics overnight. He said the clinic referred patients elsewhere to avoid errors outside its available expertise.
Provincial health delegate Chaouki Amirane said private clinics should not refuse patients without first examining them and should assess and stabilise emergency cases before arranging a transfer.
Morocco’s medical ethics code requires doctors, regardless of specialty, to provide extreme emergency assistance to patients in immediate danger when other medical care cannot be secured.
The second clinic had not publicly responded to the allegations.
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