Morocco needs 95,000 more health workers – Health Minister says

The success of Morocco’s plan to implement universal health coverage hinges on meeting the deficit in health workers estimated at 95,000, health minister said.

Speaking to MPs, Minister Khaled Ait Taleb said that Morocco needs 32,522 more doctors and 65,044 nurses, adding that currently Morocco has only 1.7 doctors per 1000 people, which is far below the WHO recommendation of 2.5 doctors per 1000 people.

The minister also stressed the need for a review of the status of health workers in the civil service and to allow the recruitment of foreign doctors as well as opening the sector to foreign investors.

Earlier in April, a project to allow 22 million additional people to have access to mandatory health insurance by 2022 was launched in implementation of Royal instructions.

The same welfare plan aims at generalizing family allowances by 2024, retirement pensions by 2025 benefiting primarily farmers, and self-employed people, and loss of employment compensation by 2025 in line with directives laid out in a Royal speech last July.

This program will require funding worth 51 billion dirhams or $5.7 billion by 2025, of which 23 billion dirhams will be funded from the government’s budget.