Cabinet approves the establishment of a medical city

Tunisia’s cabinet has approved a plan to establish a medical city in Kairouan, in the central part of the country, which will house a university complex that will include a higher institute of health sciences, a school of biotechnical engineering and a military medical academy.

Another two medical cities – one in the north and one in the south of Tunisia – are also in the pipeline.

The draft decree to set up the multidisciplinary Aghlabid Medical City was approved on 26 September at a meeting of the Council of Ministers at the Government Palace in the Kasbah. It was chaired by Prime Minister Kamel Madouri on behalf of Tunisian President Kais Saied, according to the presidency.

The Aghlabid Medical City will cost approximately US$1.2 billion and will be built on about 300ha (3km²) of land.

In addition to the military medical academy – the first of its kind in Tunisia – which will provide education in Arabic, English and French, the school of biotechnical engineering will offer educational programmes about the technological applications that use biological systems or living organisms to create or modify products and processes for a specific use.

The higher institute of health sciences, in turn, will provide training and educational programmes for producing health professionals.

The medical city will also house a tourist area as well as a health services area with medical, psychiatric, autism and emergency medical assistance centres. There will also be a multidisciplinary military clinic and an industrial space dedicated to the health sector.

Status of the medical work force

The capital of Tunisia, Tunis, is ranked seventh on a list of African cities ranked for offering the best healthcare systems, according to the 2024 Healthcare Systems Index which estimates the overall quality of a country’s healthcare system, including the skill and competency of medical staff.

However, the doctor-to-patient ratio in Tunisia stands at approximately 1.5 doctors per 1,000 people which is below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 2.3 doctors per 1,000 people for adequate healthcare delivery, according to an August 2024 study titled, ‘Towards implementing telemedicine in Tunisia: A knowledge, attitude and practice study among medical doctors’.

Tunisia only has four medical schools, according to the World Directory of Medical Schools.

Educational and economic significance

Nesrine Souayeh, an associate professor at the gynaecology and obstetrics department of the regional Ben Arous Hospital, which is part of the faculty of medicine at the University of Tunis El Manar in Tunis, welcomed the news of the Aghlabid Medical City in Kairouan.

She told University World News: “This medical city and its associated medical academy, school and [other] institutions will have a positive impact on producing capable and skilful medical work forces needed for Tunisia as well as Arab and African countries.

“The medical city will also promote medical tourism as a lucrative opportunity to generate national income and boost the economy,” Souayeh added.

Tunisia ranked fourth regionally after South Africa, Egypt and Morocco and 38th out of 46 countries worldwide in the 2020-21 Medical Tourism Index, which includes several components, including medical workforce experience and internationalisation of staff and hospitals.

Alliance of North African medical cities

Morad Ahmed Morad, a professor of medicine at Egypt’s Tanta University, told University World News that the envisaged Tunisian medical city is an important step in North Africa to establish a regional alliance of medical cities that can pursue health-related goals in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“This alliance should include medical cities that have medical higher learning institutions and scientific research centres in North African countries, including the Marrakech Healthcare City in Morocco, the Medical City Mother Tinhinan in Algeria, the Libya Msalata Medical City and the Cairo International Medical City in Egypt.

“This alliance will help to promote cooperation among the medical scientific community and facilitate the transfer of knowledge, as well as best practices in medical education and research,” Morad explained.

“As a result, the alliance could be an important tool for participating in achieving SDG 3 [ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages] through supporting medical research and offering training as well as helping with the retention of the local health workforce,” noted Morad.