With the hope of rescuing survivors in the small towns of the High Atlas affected by the earthquake on the 8th in Morocco is currently trying to provide medical assistance to the injured It is taking on the shortcomings of its public health system and is supported by an increasing number of volunteer health workers who come to the country from around the world.
The latest official death toll admitted by the Moroccan Interior Ministry, which has not been updated since Wednesday, records, in addition to 2,946 deaths, also 5,674 injured, many of them very seriously, which assumes that the number of deaths will be even higher and will continue to increase, as the Spanish volunteer from the organization Islamic Relief explained to LA RAZÓN in Marrakesh Hana El Abdallaoui after taking part in on-the-ground relief operations in an area of the High Atlas where no aid had previously reached.
In one of the few public speeches by members of the Moroccan government, who reacted slowly and stiffly while always waiting for instructions from the head of state, the Minister of Health, Khalid Ait Talebhad declared on Tuesday that the The situation in Al Haouz province was under controlthe country most affected by the tragedy and the epicenter of the earthquake, “without the need to mobilize human resources from other regions.”
Mohamed VI University Hospital is the main medical center that they are currently caring for those injured by the earthquake. It’s not the only thing: there is also something like this in the cities of Taroudant and Agadir. At the same time, the Moroccan authorities have built a military field hospital in the heart of the city of Asni, 43 kilometers from Marrakesh, in the first foothills of the Atlas Mountains.
An authentic city built over time by the Moroccan authorities, led by the army and security forces, the gendarmerie and the police, centralizing healthcare in this part of Al Haouz province. Dozens of homeless families are accommodated here and medical assistance is offered to the injured. Serious illnesses requiring surgical intervention are referred to the above-mentioned University Hospital (CHU) in Marrakech.
In the only, for the moment, physical appearance of the King of Morocco for the benefit of the citizens affected by the earthquakeLast Tuesday the monarch traveled to the aforementioned CHU Mohamed VI. to the ocher city. The Alawite ruler had the opportunity to meet several of those injured in the earthquake, encourage them and even send a message by donating blood. This Thursday, Mohamed VI made another public appearance, albeit far from the area, in Rabatand through images, to chair a new crisis meeting dedicated to providing assistance to those affected.
While hospitals treat some of the injured, groups of doctors travel to different parts of the city. Mountain Range to assist those who require on-site medical professionals due to urgency or inability. This is the case of a multidisciplinary medical caravan – made up of specialists in traumatology, pediatrics or ophthalmology – working in the town of Talat N’Yacub, near the epicenter of the earthquake, the Moroccan press reported yesterday.
The young woman has been waiting since eight o’clock in the morning under the sun, which sets in the early afternoon. Amina waits her turn to enter the blood transfusion center of the Mohamed VI University Hospital Complex. “I came very early to donate blood to help the victims of the earthquake and I will do it again in the coming days,” he tells LA RAZÓN with visible emotion. At her side is Omar, a resident of Marrakech. «It is a moral duty for all of us to come here to donate blood. “Moreover, from a religious point of view, it is for Muslims,” this middle-aged man tells this newspaper.
But it’s not just Moroccan donors. In these hours, solidarity extends to hundreds and thousands of people from all over the world I am particularly sensitive to the situation in the Maghreb country. An American woman from Florida who lives in France traveled from Tangier to donate blood in Marrakesh.
“Last year I became seriously ill while on holiday in Tangier and the Moroccans were very good to me and took me to hospital. Donate blood and money – in In 48 hours we managed to raise $500– this is the least I can do at the moment,” explains Dawn, who cannot hold back her tears, to this medium. They also wait patiently for instructions from security forces reminding them of the requirements that must be met by candidates for blood donors, groups of sub-Saharan neighbors who, as a group, do not always receive the best treatment from their neighbors in the major cities of Morocco. .
A few meters from the tents where donors are welcomed, More than 150 people wait in silence for their turnis the central building of the hospital complex named after the current King of Morocco. Dozens of relatives of those injured in the earthquake wander around all day waiting for news from inside the hospital.
Several relatives turn to journalists and show them the invoices that the medical center sent them for treatment, including a breakdown of tests and medications. The total amount that a neighbor from a community affected by the earthquake presents to us in a photocopy of her husband’s treatment exceeds the equivalent of 400 euros and she claims that she does not have the money to pay the bill.
A young woman whose husband was admitted with a serious leg injury as a result of the collapse of part of their house in the old medina of Marrakech complains the same thing: they don’t have the money to cover the costs that social security doesn’t cover. takes over management of the city’s main hospital. They all highlight another latent and structural problem of the Moroccan state: the poor health services, which are neither fully public, nor universal, nor of high quality.
“I hurt my mother very badly; Part of their house collapsed due to the earthquake. “I was lucky that I was still in the store at that time and was awake so I could get out of the house quickly and save myself,” said this resident of Demnat, another town in the Atlas affected by the devastating earthquake . explains LA RAZÓN. more than 115 kilometers from Marrakech, waiting around the hospital for news of her mother.
