The Royal Hospital

Perhaps no country in the world has achieved so much in so little a time in terms of health care as Oman has in the last three decades. The Ministry of Health has truly translated into reality the promise made by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos in his first address to the nation following his accession in 1970 that priority in the development of the country would be given to health and education, for which all Omanis yearned.

What is equally significant is that all these achievements have been with focus on economy and efficiency. It is therefore no surprise that the World Health Organization, in a study covering 191 countries, which was published in Year 2000, ranked the Sultanate of Oman as first in the world for its highly efficient health system and for effective and competent utilization of the available financial resources in health services. Oman was also rated eighth for providing the most comprehensive health care at the world level.

This MoH miracle - the progress made in the standards of health care - is evident when one reviews the change in the below-cited indicators, tabled over the years:

 

Demographic / Mortality	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005	2010
Life Expectancy at Birth (in years)	49.3	57.5	66.5	73.4	74.3	73.3
Crude Death Rate (per 1000 population)	?	13.3	7.6	3.7	2.5	2.9
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1000 live births)	118	64	29	16.7	10.3	10.2
Under 5 Mortality Rate (per 1000 live births)	181	86	35	21.7	11.1	12.3
Still Birth Rate (per 1000 births)	?	16.6	13.3	10	9.1	7.9
Maternal Mortality (per 100,000 live births)	?	?	?	16.1	15.4	26.4
Nutritional / Morbidity	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005	2010
Protein Energy Malnutrition (per 1000 children below 5 yrs)	?	?	?	15	22	6.9
Acute Respiratory Infections (per child below 5 yrs per year)	?	?	2.4	1.6	1.5	1.2
Diarrhoeal Diseases (per child below 5 yrs per year)	?	?	0.6	0.3	0.3	0.2
Immunization	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005	2010
BCG Coverage (%)	?	54	96	98.1	99.0	99.0
OPV3 Coverage (%)	?	19	98	99.9	99.9	99.0
DPT Coverage (%)	?	19	98	98.6	99.9	99.0
Measles Vaccination (%)	?	10	98	98.7	98.9	99.0
Hepatitis B Vaccination (%)	?	?	99	99.9	99.9	99.0
Health Services	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005	2010
Number of Hospitals	2	30	52	55	58	62
Number of Hospital Beds	12	1879	3873	5190	5270	5757
Beds per Population (per 10,000 population)	0.2	18.6	24.3	21.6	21.0	17.8
Bed/Doctor Ratio	0.9	3.7	2.7	1.6	1.3	1.0
Bed/Nurse Ratio	?	1.7	0.9	0.7	0.6	0.4
Gov. Health Centres/Clinics	22	80	136	161	184	221
Private Clinics	?	?	334	560	713	814
Health Manpower	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005	2010
Doctors	13	514	1441	3258	4182	5862
Doctors per 10,000 Population	0.2	5.1	9	13.6	16.7	18.1
Nurses	?	1096	4147	7829	9277	12865
Nurses per 10,000 Population	?	10.8	26	32.6	37.0	39.7
Dentists	0	23	84	262	448	654
Dentists per 10,000 Population	0	0.2	0.5	1.1	1.8	2.0
Health Expenditure	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005	2010
MoH Expenditure (as % of Gov. Expenditure)	?	3	4.9	6.2	4.7	5.1
MoH Expenditures (per capita in R.O.)	9.1	28	52.2	60.7	79.5	116.2