The Truth about Health in Morocco: No Health without Workforce Development!

Morocco is in urgent need to improve healthcare infrastructure while eliminating regional disparities in access to  care. The country is also undergoing epidemiological transition to an older population that will need more consistent healthcare options. Meanwhile, Morocco shows very high youth unemployment rates that paradoxically coincide with a deficit of trained healthcare professionals including nurses, doctors, and other technicians. In this paper, Sanaa Belabbes, professor of Management at Mohammed VI University of Health Sciences in Casablanca explains why healthcare professions aren't attracting young workers, why their training is in many ways insufficient, and why doctors and specialists prefer to emigrate and practice in Europe. She also explains how the public and private healthcare systems are diverging and why there is a lack of coordination at the national level to determine the training standards for the healthcare workforce.