Sunday 19 / May / 2024
Muscat: The Sultanate has achieved an Omanisation rate of 72 per cent in the Ministry of Health, with a total worker count of 39,413, His Excellency Ahmed Al Saidi, the Minister of Health said in a statement to the Shura Council on Sunday. In 2016, this amount was 69 per cent.
The Minister also said that the current rate of occupancy at the four tertiary healthcare hospitals is at 70.7 per cent with a maximum of 77.8 witnessed so far at the Royal Hospital. In 2019, 15.7 million visits were paid to outpatient clinics at an average of 43,000 visits per day. 118,000 surgeries were performed in 2019, up from 111,000 surgeries in 2016. 42 per cent of these were major surgeries.
Dialysis units have been increased to correspond with an increase in patients requiring the procedure. Oman has also recorded an increase in the prevalence of diabetes, blood pressure and obesity, the Minister informed the Shura Council. He also said that Oman had constituted a special medical committee to examine patients with certain medical conditions before taking the decision to send them abroad for specialised treatment. In 2016, 890 patients were treated abroad, while in 2019, 905 patients made the trip out of Oman.
The Ministry of Health is also preparing the tenth five-year plan, which will include proposals for new projects. However, this is governed by the overall economic conditions in the country and the extent of improvement. The Minister listed out the challenges faced by Oman in the health sector as follows:
a. Challenges related to financial resources.
b. Challenges related to health problems.
c. Challenges related to health services.
d. Challenges related to health human resources.
