Morocco is Seeking to Attract Foreign Doctors to Provide 45 Health Professionals per 10,000 Citizens
The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Ameen Al-Tahrawi, confirmed that Morocco aims to increase from 17.4 health professionals per 10,000 citizens, recorded in 2022, to 45 health professionals per 10,000 citizens by 2030, with the establishment of incentives to attract foreign doctors to work in Morocco.
This statement came in response to a written question posed by the head of the Parliamentary Movement group in the House of Representatives, Idriss Senhaji, regarding “the progress of implementing the law related to health employment.” The minister emphasized that enhancing health institutions with the necessary human resources is an urgent priority for the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.
Al-Tahrawi attributed the problems facing the Moroccan healthcare sector to “the scarcity of medical and nursing staff in the sector, primarily due to several external factors, including the low attractiveness of the public sector, and the intense competition among foreign countries in attracting health professionals to address their shortages, as well as the unequal distribution of human resources across the kingdom and the reluctance to join healthcare institutions located in rural and remote areas, particularly for general practitioners under these constraints.”
He pointed out that the ministry has taken several strategic measures aimed at addressing the shortage in the national healthcare system and enhancing health services through the promotion of training and professional development for health workers, as well as investment in the health sector at a cost exceeding 3 billion dirhams. “The implementation of this program will enable us to move from 17.4 health professionals per 10,000 residents, recorded in 2022, to 45 health professionals per 10,000 residents by 2030, in line with World Health Organization standards for achieving sustainable development goals.”
The same source noted that in 2024 there was an 88% increase in the number of educational seats allocated for entry to medical, pharmacy, and dental colleges compared to 2019, with plans to continue increasing these seats and opening 7,543 seats starting in 2027 as programmed under the framework agreement.
For nurses and health technicians, this increase reached 206% for the bachelor’s program with 8,360 educational seats in 2024, and 353% for the master’s program between 2020 and 2024, with plans to open 11,900 educational seats starting from 2029.
Al-Tahrawi stated that the ministry is preparing to establish 16 research teams and 4 research laboratories at the doctoral level in the higher institutes of nursing and health technologies, in coordination with various governmental and social partners. Additionally, the number of positions for residency exams will be increased over five years by adding 100 positions every year for the contractual residency exam and 50 positions for the non-contractual residency exam for specialist doctors.
He also confirmed that efforts are underway to enhance health services and increase the number of health professionals, particularly by raising the number of financial positions allocated for hiring health staff from 4,000 positions in 2019 to 6,500 expected in 2025, while enhancing the powers of the ministry’s decentralized departments by delegating authority to organize regional recruitment exams since late 2020, allowing greater flexibility in addressing shortages of medical and nursing staff in certain regions and considering the specificities of each area in the operation of territorial health groups.
Innovative mechanisms have also been adopted for managing some essential specialties, such as the regional medical program that aims to distribute medical competencies fairly among regions based on local particularities, and to improve the distribution and mobility of health personnel within the region to overcome the issue of medical professionals’ instability in some remote areas or their reluctance to join them.
In this context, Law No. 33.21 was issued, allowing foreign doctors to work in Morocco, which introduced new incentives to ensure greater attraction of these doctors. This step paves the way for attracting foreign competencies in the field of medicine to address the ongoing human resource shortages, especially in specialties facing significant deficits, noting that the kingdom currently has 580 foreign doctors practicing.
