Professor Brahim Lekehal, at the helm of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Territorial Health Group (GST-RSK), embodies a unique presence characterized by a reserved demeanor and a serious expression shaped by his background as a surgeon and academic. In his role, he emphasizes the importance of precision and meticulous preparation in healthcare management, ensuring that every decision is made with careful consideration. This disciplined approach reflects his extensive experience and commitment to one of the most challenging tasks in healthcare reform: establishing the GST-RSK, a new public institution aimed at transforming the healthcare organization in one of Morocco's most populous and diverse regions.
As a vascular surgery professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rabat, where he previously served as dean, Lekehal represents a generation of practitioners who view care, education, and governance as interconnected responsibilities. In addition to his role at GST-RSK, he chairs the Advisory Council for Organ and Human Tissue Transplantation and was honored in 2026 by being elected to the National Academy of Surgery in France, a testament to the academic dimension of his career.
From Operating Room to Governance
Appointed in April 2026 as the general director of GST-RSK, Lekehal transitions to a broader leadership role without fundamentally changing his methodology. His communication style remains that of a practitioner focused on diagnosing issues, prioritizing emergencies, ensuring smooth transitions, and maintaining a steadfast focus on patient care. The reform he is tasked with leading transcends mere administrative restructuring; it involves consolidating the university hospital and various decentralized health facilities previously managed by the Ministry of Health into a cohesive public institution comprising primary healthcare centers, local hospitals, provincial hospitals, and regional structures.
This merger represents an institutional challenge of considerable complexity, necessitating a thorough review of human resources, contracts, assets, legal disputes, and financial pathways of the former entities, all while ensuring the continuity of public service. Lekehal illustrates this transition through practical questions: What accounts should funds be directed to before the transition? How can we prevent shortages of medications, health products, or blood? What measures ensure that every manager has a clearly defined assignment from day one? His meticulous attention to these details underscores a pragmatic view of governance.
Balancing Economic Efficiency with Collective Welfare
For Lekehal, reform cannot be confined to the legal texts that establish it; it must manifest in decision-making processes, the working conditions of teams, and, most importantly, in the daily experiences of patients. His emphasis on the critical role of head nurses, whom he describes as the backbone of the system, highlights the need to solidify ground-level responsibilities, acknowledge the roles performed, and ensure that professionals receive appropriate compensation for their contributions.
Moreover, Lekehal applies the same philosophy to human resources. Faced with workforce shortages, he advocates for both recruitment and redeployment while rejecting coercive management practices. Mobility among staff should be explained, supported, and collaboratively constructed. He notes that a professional placed in the wrong position may struggle to showcase their abilities in one service while thriving in another. Additionally, he recognizes the mental burden faced by healthcare workers, particularly those in emergency or intensive care units, stating, "We must support those who provide care." Therefore, his vision for human resource management encompasses training, valuing, listening to staff, and creating conditions conducive to fulfilling their missions effectively.
Brahim Lekehal also maintains a realistic perspective on the economics of public health services. He carefully distinguishes between managerial autonomy, which the new institutional framework supports, and financial autonomy, which he views as a long-term goal to be achieved. The former aims to enhance performance, quality, and efficiency, while the latter requires a reevaluation of pricing, billing, and revenue collection mechanisms. He believes that the introduction of compulsory health insurance fundamentally alters the landscape, as patients now require adequate compensation for services provided by public institutions.
His insights do not undermine the protective role of the state; instead, he advocates for a balanced approach where insured individuals are integrated into systems financed by managing entities while ensuring that those unable to pay continue to receive care. The pursuit of revenue should not replace the social mission of public service but should empower it to fulfill its role more effectively.
To bridge gaps in healthcare delivery, Lekehal is focused on team mobility, facility rehabilitation, enhancing local skills, and redefining care pathways. Patients should not have to restart their journey with each transfer between a provincial hospital, a regional facility, and the university hospital. Care pathways need to be clear, responsibilities well-defined, and directions organized at the territorial level.
The ambitious vision he has for GST is to dismantle the silos that have long separated healthcare structures and create a true system. Behind the budgetary, administrative, and technical challenges, Lekehal consistently emphasizes the need for trust—trust from professionals in the institution, trust from partners in its commitments, and trust from citizens in the public service's ability to welcome, direct, and treat them. While he acknowledges the scale of the challenges and the time required for transformation, he remains convinced that health can become a common good uniting the state, caregivers, partners, and the population. It is now his responsibility to translate this ambition into tangible results, employing the precision of a surgeon, the perspective of an academic, and the patience of an institutional builder.
As reported by telquel.ma.
