Saturday 27 / April / 2024
Muscat: The total expenditure by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Oman rose 22.6 per cent to OMR972.5 million in 2020 compared to OMR793.3 million in 2019, a new report reveals.
The total number of health centres and polyclinics operated by the Ministry reached 211, the annual health report 2020 shows. This includes 54 health centres with a capacity of 84 beds, and 21 polyclinics, in addition to 51 hospitals having 5,262 beds at the end of 2020.
Also, a field hospital was designated exclusively for COVID-19 cases with 202 beds. Many services were also added to these institutions in order to improve the quality of health services provided at all levels, the report added.
The total number of workers in the Ministry of Health reached 38,566 at the end of December 2020, with an Omanisation rate of 73 per cent.
In contrast, development expenditure of the Ministry of Health decreased to OMR15.7 million in 2020 from OMR21.6 million in 2019.
With regard to other vital indicators, the report said that the birth rate among Omanis was 28.6 per 1,000 population in 2020 while the death rate among Omanis was 3.2 per 1,000 population in 2019.
The death rate among children under five years of age decreased to 9.3 per 1,000 births in 2020 compared to 10.2 per 1,000 births in 2019, and the infant mortality rate (less than one year) per 1,000 live births decreased from 8.0 to 7.6 for the same period.
The report also showed the control of measles, where no case of the disease has been recorded in 2020.
Oman has remained free of many diseases such as polio since 1993, diphtheria and neonatal tetanus since 1991. The incidence rates of other communicable diseases have decreased to lower levels.
For instance, the number of malaria cases dropped to 276 in 2020 compared to 1,338 cases in 2019.
COVID-19 pandemic has posed a great challenge to all health systems, whether in the most or least developed countries in the world, the report said.
The decrease in the use of health services in 2020 is attributed mainly to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of outpatient clinics visits to MOH institutions in 2020 dropped to 10.5 million visits compared to about 15.7 million visits in 2019.
The average number of visits per Omani person to outpatient clinics reached 3.7 visits in 2020, which led to a decrease in the total number of discharged patients from MOH’s health institutions to reach about 257000 in 2020, with an average period of hospitalisation of 3.7 days of stay and 47.8 per cent of bed occupancy rate.
The health system in the Sultanate, along with all state apparatus, has confronted this challenge with efficiency and competency, relying on the strong infrastructure that was built over the years and on the competencies of its human resources for health, implementing simultaneously all international standards and policies set for the fight against this pandemic, the report said.
The MOH, represented by the Information & Statistics Department of the Directorate General of Planning and Studies, issued the Annual Health Report 2020.
The report highlights the main services provided by the health sector in 2020 along with health and vital indicators and the sustainable development goals. The reports contains as well a brief for the most important MOH studies and researches over the past years.
The annual health report 2020 started with an introduction about the demographic and geographic features of the Sultanate in addition to the administrative structure and organisation of the Ministry.
Most of the health indicators are revealed in this report in a time series of the past years.
The report shows description and development of the indicators related to various health fields of the Ninth Five-Year Plan and the achievements that have been made within the five years of the plan, in addition to an overview of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, its objectives, and related indicators.
