Private Sector to Play a Major Role
As part of a major strategy to cut down healthcare expenditure, Oman government is planning to encourage private sector to play a bigger role in the healthcare sector.
QUICK GLANCE
Oman government is actively considering a mandatory healthcare insurance scheme for both expatriates and Omani workers.
The Sultanate has more than 11 hospitals and 973 clinics in the private sector.
Several private developers are set to open hospitals and medical facilities over the next five years.
Oman government is in the process of implementing a national strategy for education development until 2040.
Major focus is also on technical and career-oriented programmes to suit the requirements of labour market.
As part of a major strategy to cut down healthcare expenditure, Oman government is planning to encourage private sector to play a bigger role in the healthcare sector. With the government facing fiscal deficit challenges in view of prolonged slackness in oil prices, which constitutes 79 per cent of its budget revenue, the authorities are left with no other option but to think ways and means of cutting down expenditure with an active involvement of private sector.
In line with the plan, Oman government is actively considering a mandatory healthcare insurance scheme for both expatriates and Omani workers, which will ensure enough business for private healthcare centres and allow government to gradually downsize its healthcare expenditure. The healthcare insurance scheme is aimed at reducing the healthcare burden of the government when it is finding it difficult to meet its expenditures amid dwindling oil revenue. The scheme, which is submitted with the Cabinet for approval, will be implemented in a phased manner over a period spanning between five to ten years. Employee medical insurance is a cashless scheme wherein the insurance company, which ties up with a network of hospitals/polyclinics, gets volume business and the employees of its corporate clients get access to cashless healthcare facilities.
Although government facilities are still the backbone of the country’s large healthcare network, now the private sector is emerging as a major force in developing healthcare facilities. As many as 75 per cent of hospitals and 78 per cent of hospital beds belong to the Ministry of Health, which is also the major employer in medical field. Presently, the Sultanate has more than 11 hospitals and 973 clinics in the private sector, which indicates a phenomenal growth compared to the situation almost two decades ago. Several private developers are set to open hospitals and medical facilities over the next five years across the country, including Muscat, Duqm, Salalah and Sohar. After pumping in funds for four-and-a-half decades for building a wide network of hospitals and primary health centres across the country, now the focus is on setting up healthcare cities, enhancing efficiencies to improve the overall healthcare system. In 2013, the Ministry of Health has initiated building five hospitals – one each in Al Suwaiq, Khasab, North Batinah, Al Dhakhiliya and Al Falah – which will add 900 beds in total.
Also, the country’s authorities are considering a high-powered ‘health council’ to regulate the healthcare sector in an effective manner. The council, similar to the education council, is for regulating all entities involved in providing healthcare, which include both ministry and private hospitals. This is expected to bring in new regulations in line with the world-class facilities provided by developed countries. Another major initiative of the ministry is to introduce a unique number for each and every patient by linking four major government hospitals with private hospitals and clinics to ease complexities in treatment, which will help in tracking the case history of patients. The initiatives have already been started with the linking of four major government hospitals.
Further, the Ministry of Health (MoH) is working on an ambitious plan that will see the introduction of telemedicine at its primary, secondary and tertiary care clinics and hospitals across the country. The use of information technology, which is the basis of telemedicine, is expected to bring in a marked shift in advancing and improving health services. Once operational, this facility will help the ministry to provide services in a better way. It will also allow specialists based in cities to provide consultancy to patients visiting healthcare facilities in remote areas. Telemedicine connects doctors and patients at different locations using information technology systems. Specialised medical staff in central or urban healthcare facilities can access the record of a patient located in a remote area to diagnose his problems.
The Sultanate’s healthcare sector has grown to such an extent that the country has one hospital bed to serve 624 people. Further, Oman has 19 doctors per 10,000 people against a global average of 14 doctors. The progress made in the healthcare field helped the country to be in the league of well-developed nations in terms of several parameters. For instance, the country has achieved tremendous progress in controlling communicable diseases, which, in turn, helped to achieve an increase in life expectancy as well. Budget allocation for healthcare sector has been raised by the government this year, despite a difficult year in view of a dip in anticipated revenue. Budget allocation for this year was RO1.6 billion or 11 per cent of total government expenditure, up from RO1.3 billion allocated in 2014. This year’s budgetary allocation is for building 11 hospitals and primary health centres across the country, which is in line with a long-term strategy prepared by the Ministry of Health few years ago.
Now the long-term strategy is to build ambitious tertiary facilities. As part of the plan, one each major medical cities are planned in North Batinah and Salalah. The medical city in North Batinah (which is called Sultan Qaboos Medical City), which is a government initiative, will have a gamut of world-class specialties. The complex will have five highly specialised tertiary hospitals, besides diagnostic centres to meet the growing needs of the country’s four million plus population. The planned centres include an organ transplant centre, a rehabilitation centre, a pediatric hospital, a general hospital and an ENT hospital. The medical city, which will be established with a capital expenditure of around $1 billion, will be ready within a couple of years.
Another significant development is the ongoing plans of a private group to develop an international health city in Salalah. The Saudi-based Apex Medical Group and its affiliate companies, the promoters of International Medical City (IMC) in Salalah, is proceeding with its plans to set up the Mena region’s first transplant and rehabilitation centre of excellence.
The first phase of International Medical City (IMC), the $1 billion-healthcare city, is expected to open for patients towards the end of 2016. The first phase will have a healthcare complex, which will have a 530-bed tertiary care multi-specialty hospital and three centres of excellence. The three medical centres of excellences are for organ transplant and dialysis, diagnostics and rehabilitation. The organ centre will offer transplant facility for liver, kidney and pancreas. Apart from a healthcare complex, the landmark project, which is coming up in an area of 87,000 square meters of land, will have three major clusters to be developed in the second and third phases, respectively. In the second phase, IMC has plans for a healthcare resort, which will have a four-star medical hotel to cater to the needs of the patients. And in the third phase, it will have an education complex, which will have a medical college, a nursing college and research and development centres. In fact, mega hospitals with huge investments are required for the country to meet the requirement of a growing population. Presently, 38 per cent of Oman’s population is under 15 years, which will undergo a drastic demographic change in the next forty years.
A UAE-based institution estimated the growth in number of hospital beds in Oman at 4.1 per cent per annum to 9.359 by 2018, from an estimated 7,645 in 2013. Besides, the Sultanate’s healthcare services market is expected to expand at an annual rate of 11.8 per cent to reach $3.8 billion in 2018, from $2.1 billion in 2013. The expansion in healthcare service increased the ministry’s coverage to almost 95 per cent of populated area in the country. The remaining five per cent of the population live in remote mountainous regions that are not easily accessible and poses a great challenge to the delivery of healthcare and other social services.
EDUCATION SECTOR
Oman government is in the process of implementing a national strategy for education development until 2040, which is aimed at raising the education standard. It has five components – maintenance of standards in all forms of education, including school, higher education and technical education; ensuring graduates are sought by the labour market; ensure that the education system is adequately funded; guaranteeing quality and; improving governance and administration.
The new strategy will ensure that standards will continue to improve and meet the needs of sustainable development, while keeping up with best international practices. The high-power Education Council (EC) is taking into account the experience of education systems in other countries for setting its own standards. The government is also in the process of forming a national university, which will bring in sea changes in higher education facility in the country. It is expected to enhance the country’s higher learning capacity significantly, which in turn may play a major role in reducing its dependence on foreign countries for skilled professionals. Further, the new university is expected to bring in uniformity in curriculum, which is lacking in the country as several institutions in Muscat are now affiliated to different universities in various countries.Major focus is also on technical and career-oriented programmes to suit the requirements of labour market, compared to traditional degrees. In line with the strategy, the government is planning to set up two major specialised institutes, including an engineering college, for meeting the growing demand for 20,000 to 30,000 additional oil and gas industry professionals in the next ten years.
The technical training institute will come up in Adam to offer diploma programme for school-leavers in various technical fields required by the oil and gas industry, which include electrical, mechanical, instrumentation and draftsman. The second institute is planned in Muscat for conducting bachelors’ degree programmes in different fields in petroleum engineering, chemical engineering and mechanical engineering.
As many as seven private universities have been established, one each in Muscat, Sohar, Dhofar, Nizwa, Buraimi and Sharqiyah. The formation of all these universities not only helped students in interior regions to pursue higher education, but also developed the country’s status at levels equal to or above other countries in Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.