HIBAPRESS – A. Muhyawi
The Moroccan Network for the Defense of the Right to Health and the Right to Life has issued an urgent appeal to the Head of Government and a number of government officials, demanding the need to review the financing mechanisms of the public health sector within the framework of the "AMO-Tadamoun" system, in order to avoid what it described as the "imminent danger" threatening the continuity of the public hospital and the quality of its services.
The network said in its statement that the government has allocated approximately 9.5 billion dirhams annually to cover about 11 million beneficiaries within the "AMO-Tadamoun" system, but it warned that the "current disbursement mechanisms" allow private clinics to benefit from a large part of this financial envelope, at the expense of public hospitals. The network stressed that this shift from the previous "RAMED" system, which directed funding directly to public hospitals, has led to a weakening of public sector funding, a severe shortage of medicines and essential equipment, in addition to a large number of beneficiaries (about 44%) turning to the private sector due to the decline in the quality of public health services. The human rights body warned that the continuation of this situation will lead to the depletion of public resources and "the emptying of the public hospital of its social role," threatening the collapse of the national health system. To address this imbalance, the network called for the adoption of a number of urgent measures, the most prominent of which are: 1. Direct transfer of the financial envelope allocated to the "AMO-Tadamoun" system to the accounts of public hospitals and university hospital centers. 2. Updating the legal and regulatory frameworks to link funding to performance indicators and service quality. 3. Unifying national reference tariffs for treatments and obliging the public and private sectors to respect them. 4. Activating control and financial governance mechanisms, with enabling the Supreme Council of Accounts to monitor and track the disbursement of public funds allocated to health. The network concluded its appeal by emphasizing that "saving the public hospital is no longer an option, but a national necessity to ensure health justice and equality in access to treatment," calling on the government to "take urgent and bold action that puts the public interest above profit considerations."
