The Ministry of Health (MOH) is keen to provide the health services to citizens in its various institutions.
The health care system consists of three integrated levels; the primary, the secondary and the tertiary level. The primary health care level is the effective and high quality level provided by the health centers, polyclinics and hospitals that covers all the areas in the Sultanate. The secondary health care level is provided by the referral hospitals in the Governorates, as well as the hospitals in the Wilayats. The tertiary health care level is the high-tech specialized health care services provided by hospitals like; Royal, Khawla and Al-Nahda. Ibn Sina Hospital is also a tertiary health care specialized hospital.
At present, number of hospitals in the Sultanate reached (70) hospitals and (49) of them are affiliated to the Ministry of Health. Number of beds in all these hospitals are reached (6468) beds at a rate of (15.6) beds per 10,000 of the population, of which (4998) beds are affiliated to the Ministry’s hospitals in the rate of (77%) of the total beds in the hospitals in the Sultanate.
From this point, an official source at the (MOH) appealed to the citizens who travel abroad for treatment at their own expenses to be fully aware of their health condition before traveling. Some of these cases has no treatment abroad, while treatment of most of these cases is available in the Sultanate.
In addition, some patients have complications while they are receiving treatment abroad, this resulted to admit them in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Accordingly, they are demanding the Ministry to cover the expenses in order to return to the country.
The Ministry advises the citizens to contact the Department of Treatment Abroad to identify the specialized and accredited hospitals. It also warns the citizens not to deal with the hospitals that aim on profitability and trading only.
The source added also that the Ministry does not recommend the elderly who cannot bear traveling or who suffering from some chronic diseases and require a long period of time for treatment like cancers to travel abroad for treatment. The patient often informed that no success treatment is available and in some cases, the treatment abroad is completely the same with the treatment in the health institutions in the Sultanate.
The Department of Treatment Abroad revealed that the number of cases that have been brought back from Thailand in 2015 is reached (10) cases. While, from India it reached in 2015 (47) cases. In 2014, the number of brought back cases is reached to (36) cases.
Recently, the Ministry faces many difficulties and costs a large sums of money to bring back the critically ill patients that need a medical staff from abroad along with assistive devices, as well as cases that dead while treating abroad.
