Ministry of Health gears up for Khareef in Salalah

Energy Tuesday 16/July/2019 21:14 PM
By: Times News Service
Ministry of Health gears up for Khareef in Salalah

Muscat: Dhofar’s health services are working to promote awareness among visitors to the area during Khareef, while making sure they have easy access to any health care they may require.
Visitors to the Salalah Tourism Festival will have access to the ‘Health Corner’ at the Municipal entertainment centre on the festival grounds, which includes medical checks for visitors including blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure, as well as an on-site awareness campaign.
The Director General of Health Services in Dhofar recently held a meeting with the area heads of health institutions to make sure that the governorate is ready for the season.
An official from the Directorate General exclusively told Times of Oman, “Dr Khalid Al Mashkhi, the Director General, has chaired a meeting with the heads of health facilities in Dhofar regarding their readiness for the tourist season. During this meeting, he discussed preparations in the different Wilayats and health institutions, as well as the part they will play in the Salalah Tourist Festival, such as staffing the Health Corner and promoting health awareness , the AIDS team and the blood donation drive, and the clinic at the Municipality’s entertainment centre at the festival.”
This, the official added, is to make sure the governorate “can keep up with the high increase in the number of visitors to health institutions, especially for emergency cases.”
The Health Corner, according to the official, “Provides services for measuring body mass, blood pressure, blood-sugar levels, cholesterol, and the percentage of haemoglobin in blood, as well as presenting a service for health consultancy.”
The Health Corner will be staffed by some of the specialised services and units in the health sector, such as the AIDS and hereditary illness consultancy campaigns by the nurses at Sultan Qaboos Hospital, as well as providing ambulances and health equipment for a number of medical clinics, such as those at Salalah Festival and the Samahram tourist village, as well as the permanent camp on Ashur hill,” the official added.
Seasonal rise
Statistics by the Directorate General over the past three years show that the number of people who visit the governorate’s 42 health institutions increases noticeably during the tourist season, which runs from June to September.
The number of patients during this period in 2018 was 157,595, of which the vast majority were Omani, compared to 146,472 patients for the same period of 2017.
Almost eleven thousand cases were seen in Sultan Qaboos Hospital’s emergency section in September 2018, almost one thousand more than were seen the previous year.