Stethoscope Revolution

The Stethoscope Revolution (Morocco) is a protest movement led by medical school students, interns, residents, and their representatives in the national coordination of medical students and the National Committee of interns and residents in Morocco, after the insistence of the Minister of Health, El Hossein El Ouardi (known as Mr. Pinky), to enforce the "Compulsory Health Service" project, which was considered "the straw that broke the camel's back". This movement has witnessed many escalations: vigils, national marches (23 July and 17 September 2015), a complete boycott to the theoretical and applied lessons in all the seven medicine and dental faculties in Morocco, plus the declaration of the interns and residents to take an open-ended strike since 1 October 2015. The students have also submitted to the Ministry a protest record that displays all their claims.

The Compulsory Health Service

In the dome of the Moroccan Parliament, the Minister of Health El Hossein El Ouardi declared his intentions on setting the Compulsory Health Service Law or simply the "Compulsory Service" in order to solve health problems in Morocco.^[1] Al Ouardi stated that this service would provide the population on the rural areas the health care needed, and it would also help set a fair geographical distribution regarding working doctors. The statistics indicate that about 45% of doctors (in both the private and public sectors) are working around the axis of Rabat – Casablanca. Therefore, the ministry intends to apply this law at any cost.

The entire medical system started protesting ever since the declaration of this project, which they considered to be a threat to their future and an ineffective attempt to improve the health situation.

In early September 2015, the Health Ministry posted on its official website the Draft article on the Compulsory Health Service Law, which stirred the students all around Morocco to start making a movement to put an end to this vague project. Especially that its articles are contradicting the international agreements that were signed previously by Morocco. In addition to that, the future of the newly graduated doctors remains unknown after spending two years of The Compulsory Service on the rural areas.

The most unclear and vague point of this project is that the first article of the law considers the health service is a "national duty", while they exclude medical school students of the private newly opened medical faculty, and many other points... all these contradictions made this project exposed to criticism and controversies that did not end to the present day.

Students' reaction

The medical system – students, interns, residents and nurses included – joined their forces, waged several vigils, national strikes, awareness campaigns and national marches against the law. There was a complete and national boycott of the theoretical and applied lessons on the seven faculties of the entire country. The boycott itself was considered to be an unprecedented achievement in the entire history of medicine in Morocco, and it eventually forced the Health Ministry and others to sit at the dialogue table with the representatives in the national coordination of medical students and the National Committee of interns and residents in Morocco.

The medical and paramedical system joined the students' movement after they were fully convinced of how important this movement is to improve the entire health system that is still not getting enough attention from the Health Ministry itself; and also to improve working conditions – considered to be catastrophic in the country – and to provide adequate treatment for patients in conditions which ensure dignity of the citizen and the doctor as well.

Students' claims

The representatives in the national coordination of medical students and the National Committee of interns and residents in Morocco came up with several reports and statements in which the claims were clearly stated and specified. The most important points are:

• The illegitimacy of the Compulsory Health Service.
• Increase the number of job positions offered for newly graduated doctors, and medical specialists. (15 seats were offered last year for generalists out of more than 2000 newly graduated doctors)
• Increase the number of seats for the Internship and Residency, and open it annually.
• Increase the value of compensation for health services and night shifts on public hospitals, which are estimated at 110 dirhams (11.43usd) per month.
• Improve the medical conditions during the students training on the public hospitals.

There was opposition to the notion of equating a doctorate in medicine (8 years of studies) to any other national doctorate (7 years of studies), which would mean future doctors would study 8 years at least to end up with the same salary as a Master student (5 years of studies) which is estimated at about 8700dhs (903.61 USD).

Public opinion

The Moroccans are still unaware of the circumstances of the study and the work of their doctors and students as well. A large segment of the Moroccan society sees the doctors as an ungrateful greedy people unworthy of their white coat because they simply do not want to work in remote and rural areas due the media campaign that was waged against them. In addition to that the students did not succeed on attracting enough media to them to state and express their minds. Despite the efforts made by the students to inform the Moroccan citizens, it remains a relatively difficult task to do so. But on the other hand there is an important segment of society that has become aware of the seriousness of the situation and recognizes the importance of helping to improve this sector.

References