Health Professionals: Morocco’s Bet on Retention and Distribution
Morocco aims to strengthen its health workforce through training reform, hospital expansion, public-sector pay upgrades and better territorial distribution of professionals.
On Tuesday, June 3, 2025, during a parliamentary session in the House of Representatives, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Amine Tahraoui, reaffirmed the broad outlines of a national strategy to strengthen the health system. In response to a written question from the president of the Haraki group, the minister presented a series of measures intended to address one of the most worrying structural issues in Moroccan public health: the chronic shortage of medical human resources.
This deficit stems from three imbalances:
- Low attractiveness of the public sector,
- Large-scale emigration of health professionals,
- And unequal territorial distribution of infrastructure and skills.
The current situation is critical: with a ratio of 17.4 health professionals per 10,000 inhabitants (2022), far from WHO standards, Morocco aims to reach 45 per 10,000 by 2030. But is this ambition equal to the scale of the necessary shifts?
Reforming Medical Training
- A reduction in the number of years of study from 7 to 6 has been applied to the first cohorts, with the aim of gaining one graduating class per year.
- Improving students’ training conditions through better technologies deployed within university hospitals
- A change in the access conditions for the various competitive exams, including faculty entrance and residency exams, has also been announced and already implemented.
- An increase in the number of students, from 700 to 1,000. To achieve this, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection is mobilizing a budget of 3 billion dirhams through 2030 to roll out these measures across Morocco.
Hospital Expansion: A Race Against Territorial Inequalities
- Increasing the number of hospitals across the country: several hospitals are planned in regions lacking health infrastructure, including Laayoune, Beni Mellal and others.
- The reconstruction of hospitals at provincial level and in major cities, as planned with Ibn Sina Hospital in Rabat.
- And the rise of private initiatives such as those of the Akdital group or the International University Hospital of Rabat.
Improving the Status of Health Professionals
The flagship measure announced is the allocation of index 509 to public-sector doctors, representing a significant salary revaluation. It is a first response to the outflow of skills toward countries offering:
- Modern working conditions,
- Professional stability,
- And access to advanced research.
Mobility and Territorial Equity: A Logistical and Human Imperative
The strategy introduces a better geographical distribution of professionals according to regional needs. The Al Haouz earthquake, a tragic revealer of gaps in emergency medical coverage, strengthened political awareness of this need.
More than a mapping of needs will be required to curb the health marginalization of isolated territories: targeted incentives, decent living conditions and retention mechanisms must accompany mobility.
Conclusion
By deploying all these measures, Morocco aims to make public health a true priority pillar of national development. The question now is whether this ambitious strategy on paper will actually meet health professionals’ expectations and close persistent inequalities: will Morocco turn this strategy into a real lever of health sovereignty, or will it remain a short-term response to a systemic crisis?