Moroccan Parliament Ends SEGMA Status for 8 Fez-Meknes Public Hospitals Under 2027 Health Group

FEZ / RABAT (FesNews Media) — Morocco’s House of Representatives voted unanimously on Saturday afternoon, November 14, 2026, to adopt Article 12 of Draft Finance Bill No. 60.26 for Fiscal Year 2027, formally ending the autonomous state-managed service status (SEGMA) of forty public hospital centers nationwide—including all eight regional and provincial hospital centers across the Fez-Meknes region—effective January 1, 2027.

Across the Fez-Meknes region, the sweeping governance transition encompasses the Regional Hospital Center in Fez Prefecture (Al Ghassani and Ibn Al Khatib hospitals), the Meknes Prefectural Hospital Center, and the six Provincial Hospital Centers serving the provinces of Sefrou, El Hajeb, Ifrane, Boulemane, Taounate, and Taza, integrating all eight facilities into the newly established regional public authority known as the Territorial Health Group (GST).

Lekjaa Explains Institutional Shift Toward Unified Regional Health Groups

The unanimous adoption followed plenary debate on Amendment No. 29 submitted by the Federation of the Democratic Left (FGD), which questioned the simultaneous removal of dozens of public hospitals from the SEGMA accounting schedule.

Responding before lawmakers, Minister of Economy and Finance Fouzi Lekjaa clarified that maintaining separate SEGMA accounting units had become legally incompatible with the corporate structure of the new Territorial Health Groups: “Regional Territorial Health Groups have now been established as full-fledged public institutions, and their institutional framework cannot coexist with fragmented SEGMA units; abolishing SEGMA status allows the regional health authority to operate with greater agility, efficiency, and service quality for patients.”

Unified Budgeting and Patient Referral Across Fez-Meknes Starting January 2027

Under Article 12, closing SEGMA balances held by the eight Fez-Meknes hospitals as of December 31, 2026 will be settled into the General State Budget as the unified regional GST budget takes effect on New Year’s Day, pooling medical staffing, biomedical procurement, and hospital maintenance under one regional command alongside the Hassan II University Hospital Center (CHU) in Fez.

Healthcare observers across Fez and neighboring provinces expect the unified regional structure to streamline specialist referrals from provincial hospitals in Taounate, Taza, Sefrou, Ifrane, El Hajeb, and Boulemane while easing emergency-ward congestion in Fez.

Territorial Development Fund Vote and Plenary Time-Limit Sparring

Immediately after passing Article 12 unanimously, lawmakers voted on Article 15 establishing the Integrated Territorial Development Fund aimed at narrowing regional and rural infrastructure disparities, with Lekjaa assuring MPs that full budgetary appropriations and eight territorial governance benchmarks are locked into the special treasury account.

The sitting also witnessed a brief procedural clash between Left Federation MP Fatima Tamni and House Speaker Ahmed Touizi over ten-minute speaking caps on opposition amendments, with Speaker Touizi enforcing the House Rules of Procedure to keep voting moving toward final adoption of Part One of the 2027 Finance Bill.