Access to Oncology Care in Morocco: Current Situation and Outlook

Background:Access to health care is an important aspect of the performance of health care systems around the world. Given the high incidence of cancer in Morocco, access to oncology care has become a major component in assessing the quality of healthcare provision and thus the performance of the country’s healthcare system. However, to our knowledge, few studies have addressed this issue.Through our study, we analyze the notion of access to oncology care in Morocco and propose recommendations that meet the identified needs. Materials and methods:This is a systematic review of the literature of all articles based on access to oncology care in Morocco from January 2008 to June 2022 through a literatu research on the computerized international database (PUBMED) and a manual search on Google Scholar due to the lack of articles in the literature related to our subject.A thorough reading of the selected articles was made in order to collect information related to our subject. Results:15 articles were eligible in our study.The state of play in Morocco found a cancer incidence of 137.3 per 100,000 Moroccans in2012, the most common cancer was breast cancer in women, and lung cancer in men. The national population’s medical coverage rate was 66% in 2018. In 2020, there were 31 regional pediatric oncology and hemato-oncology centers in Morocco divided between the public and liberal sectors. The treatment and diagnosis of cancer in Morocco is done through limited equipment in small structures dominated by the private sector. The total number of specialist physicians trained in 2015 was 62 oncologists, 92 radiotherapists and 18 pediatric oncologists. The time between onset of the first symptoms and treatment was 160 days for breast cancer,216 days for lung cancer,219 days for cervical cancer.Barriers to screening, diagnosis and treatment were classified into 3 groups: Geographic barriers,financial barriers and socio-cultural barriers.The National Cancer Prevention and Control Plan is the country’s primary intervention to improve cancer management. Conclusion: Access to oncology care in Morocco remains precarious despite the country’s achievements.Further strategies will need to be implemented to improve the quality of management and access to oncology care.