Morocco experiencing severe shortage of anesthesia and resuscitation doctors

The health system in Morocco remains burdened by the striking lack of human resources in public hospitals, especially in the resuscitation service.

Speaking before the House of Representatives on Monday, February 6 in the plenary session, the Minister of Health stressed the glaring lack of human resources in the resuscitation services within health institutions, coupled with an uneven distribution of those in function across the Kingdom.

To date, Morocco has only 658 intensive care physicians with a significant gap between the public and private sectors.

According to Minister Ait Taleb, Morocco currently has a total of 196 anesthesiologists resuscitators in the public sector, against 222 during COVID-19, while 462 resuscitators operate in the private sector and a total of 658 anesthetists.

Currently, 296 anesthesiologists resuscitators others are in training, but them joining the public sector remains uncertain, therefore leaving the void in public sector health professionals.

This is a serious problem for the access of citizens to health care, mainly in the public sector.

Another striking discrepancy between the public and private sectors, according to Ait Taleb, is the concentration of anesthetists and resuscitators in the Casablanca axis (213 doctors) with 50% of working professionals in the field, Rabat (88 doctors) and Marrakech (44 doctors).

Although authorities are working to meet the challenge of training in the specialty of resuscitation, it remains no less faced with another challenge to bridge the public-private gap.

The Kingdom remains far from meeting the standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), declared at 6 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants, with Morocco currently ensuring only one doctor per 100,000 inhabitants.

Khaled Ait Taleb stressed the necessity of financial stimulation for doctors and various workers in the health sector, noting that “in the absence of stimulation, human resources will not be involved. It will push them to work and give more.”

The Minister is highly depending on incentivizing Moroccan health professionals to join the public sector, though his Ministry’s exact strategy to do so remains unknown.

The Minister touched on the Ministry’s efforts in the rural world, stating that “the rural world has 2088 health centers, which constitutes 70% of the health centers in the whole of Morocco, and there is also interest in health centers in the rural world, as it has 40% of the human resources for the health sector, or about 6,080 professionals.”