Mauritania Healthcare 101
Structure of the Healthcare
Healthcare in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is overseen by the Ministry of Health (MoH). The MoH is in charge of health and medical systems in the country and also oversees the primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare services with the help of departments including:
Hospital Medicine
Disease Control
Pharmacy & Laboratories
Basic Health Services
Planning, Cooperation, and Health Information
Infrastructures, Equipment, and Maintenance
Financing Healthcare
The National Health Insurance Fund, Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Maladie (CNAM), is working toward attaining universal healthcare in Mauritania. It covers the following groups:
Parliamentarians, civil servants, and state agents.
Personnel of the Armed Forces in active positions.
Staff of public establishments, public companies, and legal entities governed by public law.
Investment Opportunities
Lucrative opportunities to invest in the kingdom’s healthcare space include but are not limited to:
Medical Tourism and Cosmetics
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices
Hospitalization
Medical Education and Services
Start Ups & Technology
The Kingdom has utilized emerging technologies such as Digital Hospital, mHealth (Mobile Health), c-Health (Connected Health), Health 2.0, Data & Analytics, Digital Therapeutics, and Health Information Technology through various startups.
These emerging technologies have ensured healthcare services are available and easily accessible to everyone. Notable startups include:
REMA
Healthlane
Challenges
The health sector in Mauritania faces challenges toward development. These challenges include but are not limited to:
There is an underdeveloped primary healthcare system which lacks many hygiene resources and basic equipment.
There is no referral system and there is a lack of coordination between the levels of healthcare; therefore, patients end up spending much more money seeking healthcare services outside the country.
The medical staff are overburdened due to a lack of supporting personnel, which in turn contributes to long waiting lines, as physicians spend more time treating fewer patients.
There is limited bed capacity in medical facilities.
Solutions
Build an effective and efficient primary healthcare system to facilitate the first stage of early detection of diseases and treatment.
Creating a centralized referral system will facilitate emergency and outpatient healthcare needs.
Allocating funds to build more secondary and tertiary level hospitals would solve the bed capacity issue and manpower deficiencies.