Fact: there are hospitals in Morocco that are operating at half capacity. It’s not for lack of buildings or equipment—it’s for lack of healthcare workers to keep them running. The hospital in Al Hoceima is the most telling example: although well-equipped, it lacks radiologists, forcing its patients to travel all the way to Tangier for simple X-rays. The solution devised by the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Regional Health Group (GST)—sending teams from the Tangier University Hospital to Al Hoceima to “clear” the waiting lists—speaks volumes about the scale of the problem.
This is not an anomaly. It is the daily reality of a healthcare system that is structurally understaffed, a situation that data obtained exclusively by TelQuel from the Ministry of Health now allows us to measure with precision.
The initial finding is stark. As of the end of 2025, Morocco had 2.20 healthcare professionals per 1,000 inhabitants, across all categories, including both the public and private sectors. This figure represents real growth: it stood at 1.67 in 2016, marking a 32% increase over nine years. But this figure, presented as a “success” by Amine Tahraoui’s department, must be viewed in light of another: the critical threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 4.45 healthcare professionals per 1,000 inhabitants. The gap between the two is notable. In absolute terms, this represents a need for 83,020 additional healthcare professionals to reach the minimum recommended by the UN agency by 2030, including 27,673 doctors and 55,347 nurses and healthcare technicians.
To put these figures in perspective — in less than five years — Morocco would need to recruit the equivalent of the entire current workforce of the Ministry of Health, which numbers 62,273 employees across all categories. The progress made since 2020—which is real and measurable — will not be enough. And Amine Tahraoui, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, bluntly stated this before members of parliament in October 2025: “There is no single solution capable of resolving the human resources shortage within the national health system all at once.”
A decade of catching up
It would be unfair to deny the efforts that have been made. Between 2020 and 2025, the Ministry of Health’s workforce grew from 47,093 to 62,273 employees, a 32% increase. Over the same period, the number of doctors practicing in the private sector rose by 36%, from 13,622 to 18,542. University hospitals (CHUs) saw their healthcare staff grow by 20%, from 13,118 to 15,704 employees. The number of medical specialists rose from 4,331 in 2020 to 5,711 in 2026. This figure is expected to rise further with the addition of 530 residents, who are expected to join the workforce upon graduation starting next August. The number of assistant professors working in university hospitals increased by 50% between 2020 and 2026.
Training capacity has also surged. Data reviewed by TelQuel shows 9,500 spots per year in nursing schools—a 247% increase since 2020—and 6,500 medical students, up 142% over five years. The number of graduates expected from training institutions in 2026 is 8,890, up 15% from 7,717 in 2025. The number of budgeted positions has quadrupled between 2016 and 2026, rising from 2,000 to 8,000 per year, following a 2025 that already saw 6,500 such positions. In 2026, 98.2% of new positions will be dedicated to healthcare personnel, with a clear priority given to nurses, healthcare technicians, and resident physicians.
But this momentum, as strong as it is, is hampered by the numbers. The training pipeline will cover only 54% of the need for nurses and healthcare technicians by 2030. For the medical profession alone, closing the gap would require recruiting as many specialists in five years as the country has trained in two decades. Tahraoui himself set a clear timeline before lawmakers: “The shortage will not be resolved until 2029.” In practice, this means that the system will continue to operate with a structural understaffing for at least another three years.
The poor ratio and the brain drain
“The emigration of many practitioners abroad continues, despite efforts to increase the number of medical school graduates”
Behind the raw numbers lies a more complex reality that ministerial data only scratch the surface of. According to the WHO, a balanced healthcare system should consist of 70% general practitioners and 30% specialists. In Morocco, the reality is the opposite. Young doctors overwhelmingly favor specialties, the private sector, or emigration. This structural imbalance means that simply increasing the total number of doctors is not enough. They must also practice where the need is most acute: in local public healthcare facilities, not just in private clinics in major cities.
Compounding this imbalance is a phenomenon that official reports downplay: the brain drain. Rachid Hammouni, chair of the PPS parliamentary group, set the record straight in front of the Social Sectors Committee in October 2025: “Canadian hospitals are teeming with Moroccan healthcare workers.” The statement is succinct, but it sums up a reality that has been documented for years by professional bodies in the sector.
Doctors and nurses trained in Moroccan public institutions—sometimes with public funds—are leaving to practice in France, Germany, Canada, or the Gulf states, where salary and working conditions are incomparable to those in the local public sector. According to industry data, the rate of departures is estimated at approximately 700 graduates per year who move abroad—meaning nearly two qualified practitioners leave the Kingdom every day.
Istiqlal Secretary-General Nizar Baraka also sounded the alarm on June 26 during a meeting on health care reform, stating that “the emigration of many practitioners abroad continues, despite efforts to increase the number of medical school graduates,” and that “the real problem lies not only in building new hospitals, but above all in ensuring the availability of a sufficient number of healthcare professionals and retaining them within the system.”
The ministry is well aware of the problem. Tahraoui himself acknowledged before members of parliament that “the current system is not attractive” to doctors who wish to return to the country, citing the fact that since the launch of initiatives aimed at attracting doctors back, only about 500 to 600 applications have been submitted—a figure he himself describes as “very low.”
The real and substantial pay raise implemented between 2022 and 2025—amounting to an additional 4,390 dirhams net per month for general practitioners, 4,405 for specialists, and 1,950 for nurses — has not been enough to reverse the trend in a sustainable way. And the most effective tool for retaining professionals in the public sector—variable fee-for-service compensation—is still not operational. “I don’t want to make false promises; we’re moving forward with realism and transparency to introduce variable pay in 2026,” the minister explained to TelQuel last October.
The coastal region attracts talent; the rest struggles
The geographic picture of healthcare human resources reveals a divide that national averages conceal. The available data show profound disparities between regions, which the overall density per capita alone does not adequately capture. Two indicators must be cross-referenced to understand the reality on the ground: the density of healthcare professionals per 10,000 inhabitants, on the one hand, and the net flow of personnel (new hires minus departures), on the other.
This analysis reveals a two-tiered healthcare system in Morocco. The Kenitra-Rabat-Casablanca corridor concentrates the most experienced professionals, has the highest medical densities, and maintains favorable entry-to-exit ratios. Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Salé-Kenitra, and Fez-Meknes have the highest average ages among medical staff, indicating a concentration of experienced practitioners in major urban centers with university hospitals.
In contrast, some regions have inflow-to-outflow ratios for medical staff below 0.25, meaning that for every doctor who moves in, at least four leave the region. These are areas that are losing staff faster than they are gaining them, despite recruitment efforts.
The case of Al Hoceima is not an isolated one: it reflects the system’s structural inability to retain specialists in areas far from major university centers. The distribution of the nursing workforce follows a different logic: it is more regional in nature and more deeply rooted in the regions. But this nursing presence does not compensate for the lack of doctors, particularly in high-demand specialties—those that determine whether hospital services can actually operate. The technical infrastructure exists. Specialists to put it to use, however, are in short supply.
“Few facilities have emergency departments that operate effectively, with dedicated, present, and organized teams,” Tahraoui acknowledged. He added: “Most facilities face significant difficulties. There is no proper triage, the emergency department is not organized, staffing is insufficient, and there is no order.”
2030: The Goal and Its Blind Spots
The stated goal is to reach the WHO’s critical threshold by 2030, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 3 on health. Tahraoui told Parliament that he aims to increase the ratio of healthcare professionals from 17.4 per 10,000 residents in 2022 to 45 per 10,000 by 2030—a goal consistent with the WHO threshold.
The current trajectory offers some reason for optimism: the density has increased by 32% over nine years, training capacity is growing significantly, and the number of funded positions created has tripled over ten years. Projected retirements between 2026 and 2030 are generally stable for physicians but are expected to decline for nurses through 2028, which automatically eases the pressure to replace staff over this period.
But the 83,020 positions that must be created in less than five years to meet the WHO standard are not a planning goal—they are a diagnosis. An assessment that states that, in order to properly care for its population, the country needs a healthcare system with twice as many human resources as it has today. The minister is aware of this. “The difficulties we are seeing today reflect, above all, a backlog in the implementation of necessary reforms,” Tahraoui told TelQuel. A backlog that ten years of sustained progress have not been enough to eliminate.
The most significant shortfall remains what official reports dare not quantify: the exodus of professionals trained in Morocco to other, more attractive healthcare systems. This reduces the actual output of the training pipeline, deprives underserved regions of the professionals they need most, and undermines the assumption on which all projections through 2030 are based. As long as the Moroccan public sector is unable to seriously compete with Canadian, German, or French offers in terms of working conditions and compensation, the trends will continue to progress more slowly than expected.
The ratio will continue to rise; the data clearly show this. But moving from 2.20 to 4.45 per 1,000—given current training capacities and without a structural solution to the issue of attractiveness—would require either an unprecedented surge in recruitment or a revision of ambitions. Tahraoui himself set the timeline: the shortage will be “overcome only starting in 2029.” The 2030 target, meanwhile, remains set in stone in official documents. One year lies between the two. And thousands of healthcare workers who, every year, pack their bags and leave.
Written in French by Younes Saoury; edited in English by AngloMedia Group.
