Casablanca dental students protest, pausing training for 2 weeks
Dental students in Casablanca have stopped their hospital training for two weeks, starting from March 10th, after months of failed attempts to establish a resolution between the centre and its students. Students said that talks were unable to achieve anything apart from temporary fixes.
According to Morocco World News, the strikes are in response to poor conditions and supply shortages in the city’s dental treatment centre.
Shortages of medical equipment and supplies are a particularly key issue for the students, as this impacts their education and the quality of care received by patients. Alongside shortages, students have reported the supplies they do have having expired.
The student representatives said: “We have exhausted all peaceful means to make our voices heard, yet the administration continues to ignore our concerns,” they added, “We cannot stand by while our training environment deteriorates.”
If the situation is not rectified, the students believe it could undermine public trust in the healthcare system, harming the reputation of dental professionals trained under these conditions. It has been suggested that Morocco’s recent measles outbreak was in part due to anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and low public trust in the healthcare system.
In a bid for change, students planned a protest on March 12th at 11 a.m. at the dental centre. They also said that if authorities do not act, they will step up their response.
“We will not compromise on our rights or our dignity,” they maintained, calling upon officials to take responsibility and look for lasting solutions to the situation.
Morocco World News, Maghrebi, Morocco Closer
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