health system in Morocco

Morocco has 2 healthcare systems the private and the governmental. The private is accessible with money and the governmental is free or at least what they say. The question is what is the better of this two?

As a Moroccan I tried them both and the private system is better but also not good since there is no other choices. If you choose the governmental system you will have to wait for a long time before you can see a doctor some people wait up to 2 months like cancer patients since there is a big lack of doctors and even the available doctors are not doing their jobs properly or they got tired because of the insufficiency of medical equipment so they gave up.

If you ever visited a governmental hospital you will be shocked by 2 patients sharing the same bed, some are lying on the floor some are sleeping in the hallway in a critical conditions. If someone needs an operation they ask him to bring his own medical equipment such as syringes, IV drops, bandages…and of course they have to buy it with their own money which they can’t afford, most of them are poor. Another problem in the governmental hospitals is the non-respect of patients, you will notice the doctors or the nurses yelling at a patient and it’s not acceptable at all or asking for some money (corruption) so that they approach the appointment instead of 2 months it will be just 1 or less or to let you see the doctor first instead of waiting for your turn with the other patients. Lately the Moroccan government created a health social assistance called RAMED for those kind of people it includes free health care and services available in public hospitals, health centers and within state health care services, both in emergencies or during hospitalization.

Now let us talk about the private system either it a clinic or a medical office they are good and clean, with all the new medical equipment, they treat you nicely and with respect, but how about their capacity as doctors? Sadly the majority of the doctors in morocco have no capacity they always misdiagnose the illness, it’s something I experienced myself I went to 10 doctors for just the helicobacter pylori which is so easy to diagnose, it cost me a lot of money and my health worsened. The only capable doctors in morocco are the ones who studied abroad. If you are a Moroccan or you are visiting morocco and got sick look for a doctor who studied abroad, also the examination isn’t even 10 mins or less, they don’t give time to each patient, they only care for money. In the worst cases some clinics tell people they need operations even if they don’t, or they put a dead man in the intense care unit telling his family he is in coma so they can pay more.

In the end I would like to thank the few doctors who are taking their jobs seriously, the doctors who help the poor people, the doctors who give medications for free to the people in need, to the doctors who volunteer in the mountains to help the people who are far from the hospitals, to the doctors with a since of responsibility.