HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
MISSION AND A PROFILE

Mission: The goal of human resources planning in MoH is to optimise the human resources subsystem of the health sector (i.e. planning, production and utilization of manpower) through application of scientific principles of planning.

Organization: The Directorate General of Planning is responsible for human resources planning in the Ministry of Health. The core team for human resources planning consists of the staff of the Directorate of Planning and the Ministry’s Advisor on Human Resources.

This planning team has direct access to HE the Minister (who takes keen interest in human resources development planning), HE the Under-secretary for Planning Affairs (who leads health sectoral development planning in the Sultanate), as well as HE the Under-secretary for Health Affairs, HE the Under-secretary for Administrative & Financial Affairs and HE The Advisor for Health Affairs (who supervises the Directorate General of Health Affairs, the executive wing of MoH-HQ for health services management).

The Director General of Planning Affairs, the Director General of Education & Training, the Director General of Health Affairs and the Director General of Administrative Affairs are also actively associated with the activities of the human resources planning team. The team interacts closely with all relevant officials of the Ministry such as the DGs of Regions, Hospital Excecutive Directors, Nursing Officers, Deans of Institutes etc. in the context of specific plans and programs.

Functions: The principal functions of the human resources planning team are as follow:   

• Development of human resources policies/ programs and related health policies,  

• Detailed planning for the human resources component of the health care system,

• Strategic planning for human resources development,

• Human resources planning for new hospitals,

• Human resources planning for selected categories (focussing on Omanization),

• Fellowship planning,

• Re-assessment of human resources situation in existing hospitals and health centers

• Studies on qualitative aspects such as development of staff potentials,

• Development of MIS for human resources development, etc. 

Illustrative Activities: The human resources planning team of the Ministry has been engaged in supporting the development of health sector policies and broad programs, as well as detailed planning for the human resources component of the health care system.

The first major landmark in this area was the preparation of a long-term perspective plan for human resources development as a sequel to the Fourth Five Year Health Development Plan 1991-95. Subsequently, detailed studies were undertaken for human resources planning in all the new hospitals set up by the Ministry. Health manpower situation has been assessed in most existing hospitals, including local and wilayat (sub-regional) hospitals and health centers engaged in providing primary health care. Flexible manpower norms have been developed as a guide for manning these hospitals and health centers.

Category-wise detailed perspective planning is periodically undertaken for all major categories e.g. physicians (including specialists), nurses, radiographers, assistant pharmacists, physiotherapists, sanitarians, laboratory technicians and pharmacists. An example of such a study is a detailed perspective planning study on medical specialties, which came up with estimates of future requirement of medical specialists in every medical specialty. Based on the findings of this study, the Ministry identified further steps for developing medical manpower and the planned Omanization of this key category. Similar detailed studies were also undertaken on nursing and several other major categories. Such studies helped the Ministry to decide on its strategies and plans for further human resources production in the country and for gradual and smooth Omanization of these categories. Apart from the quantitative planning exercises, the human resources planning team also undertook major studies on qualitative aspects such as development potentials of Omani and non-Omani employees of important HQ Directorate Generals. As a spin-off of these studies, the Ministry took specific actions to streamline some key components of human resources policies, and important individual-level actions for developing further potentials of especially Omani employees. Another significant study focussed on the development of a MIS for Human Resources so as to ensure better availability and reliability of information for more rational decision-making on human resources management. An interdisciplinary team took stock of all the information-gathering activities within the Ministry with a view to identifying the needs for modifying the core and complementary information systems for human resources planning and management. Based on the outcome of this study, the Ministry is further developing the computerised human resources management information system in an integrated framework. A highly interactive First National Workshop on Human Resources Policy was undertaken in 2001, which led to the release of official guidelines on HRD in 2001. Another First National Workshop on Hospital Autonomy in 2002 has ushered in a significant shift in MoH hospital administration policy, which is now paving the way for the decentralization of health administration to the hospital level. Based on this workshop’s deliberations, official guidelines on hospital autonomy were released.

Tools and Techniques: The planning team has developed its own tools for category-wise health care human resources planning and for hospital manpower planning. The team has built user-friendly computer-based models for physician and nurse requirement planning. These models mostly utilize available service statistics and certain context-specific information. The planning team uses an inter-active/ participative approach, which attempts to involve all concerned professional leaders. The documents are perused by the highest echelon of the Ministry, discussed thoroughly with the concerned executives and implemented. The Ministry’s HR 2 planning approach and the documents produced have been extensively reviewed by high-level international missions such as World Bank and WHO, and favourably commented upon.

Dissemination of Information: The documents prepared by the planning team are released only to the concerned officials of the Ministry and are not in the public domain.However, certain documents are shared with the international organizations such as WHO. In order to disseminate its pioneering work to the international community, the HR planning team has developed a HRD website, which is now integrated with the Ministry of Health website www.moh.gov.om

Abstract Service:  An on-line HR/HSR Abstract service is being launched shortly. This document includes the abstracts of select HSR documents. A comprehensive list of documents / reports and policy briefs is available in a separate publication.

Our Core Team:

1. Mr.Saif Mohammed Al-Nabhani MSC (HRD), (Director General of Planning, MoH-HQ). 

nabhanis@yahoo.co.uk

2. Dr. Murtadha Moosa Jaffer M.D., DTCD, MA (Health Management), (Director of Planning, DG Planning, MoH-HQ). 

drmmjaffer@yahoo.com

3. Mr. Mohamed Hussein B.Sc, PG Diploma in Statistics, Sr. Health Information Superintendent, Part-time staff of the HRP 

section (DGP). 

mohahuss@gmail.com

Phones: 

Mr. Saif 24602177 Ext. 1146 Direct: 24601161 GSM: 99339022
Dr. Murtadha 24602177 Ext. 1260 Direct: 24604284 GSM: 99319104
Mr. Hussein 24602177 Ext. 1383/1169 GSM: 95142884.
  

Muscat,

5 May 2008 3