The Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) department of the Directorate General for Primary Health Care held today Wednesday in collaboration with experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) a workshop on the NCD Self-management at Health Sciences Institute Hall. 

The workshop targeted health workers in the primary health care institutions from different Governorates including Heads NCDs departments, nursing staff specialized in the care of NCD patients, dieticians, health educators, and Diabetic foot specialists.

Current statue of NCD in the Sultanates was highlighted by Dr.Sulaiman Nasser AL Mahrezi, NCD Director in his speech, where he indicated that 68% of hospitals mortality caused by them while chronic diseases as Diabetic and hypertension represent 60% of Kidney failure. He further pointed out that the cases are increasing continuously since the 2008 statistics showed that the diabetic prevalence rate was 12.3%, high blood pressure prevalence was 40.3%, and the prevalence of obesity reached 50%. These figures made the establishment of mechanisms and road map to tackle these diseases a necessity; one of these mechanisms is self-management.   

Dr. AL Mahrezi stressed on the importance of patients involvements in their prepared treatment plan. The patient should be fully informed about health statue, the disease, its causes and complications if not controlled, as well as treatment methods. The role of the patient himself in the treatment plan should be clarified in addition to the significance of family support since most of these diseases require special diet program, sport exercises, and quitting unhealthy habits as smoking.    

It is worth to mention that this program is supported by the WHO office in Sultanate where specialized experts conduct visits to NCD department for one week. Furthermore, the experts has visited Barka polyclinic, Al Mawleh health center, and the National Diabetics and Endocrine Center.