Oman health: 100 bed dialysis facility opens in Shinas

Muscat: About 100 patients can now benefit from the new dialysis facility established and operated by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in the Wilayat of Shinas every day. The unit has been put in place for people in the Al Batinah region, who were earlier forced to travel much longer distances for getting a dialysis.
Establishing this facility will reduce pressure on other health institutions in the governorate, and make renal dialysis services more accessible to people.
The total cost of the project is about OMR1 million, according to a press release.
In a previous interview with the Times of Oman, Dr. Issa Al Salmi, head of Renal Services at the Royal Hospital in Oman said there are more than 1,600 people on dialysis in Oman, and those who are waiting for kidneys.
“The government is currently spending OMR2,000 per month on one patient to cover the cost of their dialysis, and so organ donation, which costs between OMR4,000 and OMR5,000 for one transplant, is considered a much cheaper approach to cutting costs and improving individual lives, Al Sami explained.
“MoH pays OMR125 for one session of dialysis and in a week people need three here, so that is OMR375 a week, so roughly OMR1,500 per month, which is a huge amount, so they need to have a proper programme in place where they can cut the costs and not only costs, this is about the life of the individuals, who are bound to hospital beds,” he added.
Facilities
The total number of patients at the new unit is 25, coming from the Wilayats of Shinas and Liwa.
The new centre has a treatment room, isolation rooms, a store, waiting areas for both men and women, offices for doctors and nurses, staff lounges and other public services facilities.
About 250 kidney transplants have taken place in Oman in the last five years, and another 160 have been carried out abroad.