Moroccan resident doctors plan national sit-in following shocking suicide of a colleague

Resident and internal doctors in Morocco plan to hold national sit-ins on Wednesday, September 7, in various university hospital centers across the Kingdom, to denounce the recent death of a resident surgeon that shocked the nation.

Working in the urology department at the Ibn Rochd University Hospital Center in Casablanca, Yassine Rachid died by suicide on Thursday, September 1st, which his colleagues say was due to the “humiliating treatment, psychological pressures and intimidation” he suffered while carrying out his duties.

Rachid was a final year student at the Casablanca CHU while undergoing training in a French hospital, where his body was found.

A source from the family of the deceased doctor told Hespress that “Yassine went to France for training and tried to escape the suffering, pressure, intimidation and psychological harassment he was subjected to.”

Yassine was victimized by an assistant professor who recently joined the team at the said French hospital center. Not only was Yassine a victim of threatening practices , but also other students and doctors, residents and internal practitioners,” according to the family.

As a result of this shocking death, medical students in Morocco have initiated a wide debate about the endangered mental health of the students.

Informed Hespress sources in the “National Committee of Residents and Internal Medicine in Morocco” office said that the suit-ins planned in honor of the deceased doctor will include the recitation of Al-Fatihah, to pay respect to Rachid.

The same source added that communication will be issued soon in response to the developments of the case and the ongoing investigation of the tragic death, which is currently made by a central committee dispatched by the Minister from the General Inspection department of the Ministry of Health.

The source stressed that the National Committee of Residents and Internal Medicine Doctors in Morocco is still committed to “opening a comprehensive, transparent and impartial investigation into this death and its causes.”

“This an opportunity to shed light on what this group of doctors is experiencing, namely practices that degrade human dignity and psychological pressures that affect the mental and psychological health balance of the resident and internist throughout his training,” added the source.