Govt health institutes in Oman witness drop in manpower

Muscat: The government health sector in Oman witnessed a decrease in manpower in 2021. While the number of physicians decreased by 33 per cent, the number of dentists reduced by over 75 per cent.

According to data issued in the annual report of National Centre of Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total number of physicians in government health institutions decreased by 33.2 per cent in 2021 with a total number of 6,409 physicians compared to 9,602 physicians in 2019.

The statistics also showed that the total number of nurses dropped by 21.6 per cent. The number of nurses in the government sector decreased by 4,399 people from 2019, bringing the total number of nurses in 2021 to 15,924 in various government hospitals, where the statistics including the medical staff working under the Ministry of Health and ROP, SQUH, Diwan of Royal Court and PDO.

According to NCSI annual report, the government sector also witnessed a decrease in the total number of dentists by 75.9 per cent from 1,494 dentists in 2019 to 359 dentists in 2021, and number of pharmacists also decreased by 66.6 per cent in 2021 compared to 2019.

On the other hand, the private health institutions witnessed an increase in total health manpower with 14,377 personnel in 2021 compared to 13,450 in 2019. With 60 new physicians in 2021 added to 2,557 physicians in the sector in 2019 and the total nurses also decreased in private sector where the total number of nurses dropped from 4,078 in 2019 to 3,968 in 2021.