Khoula Hospital launches plans for more surgeries, scans

Muscat, Sept 8

The Directorate-General of Khoula Hospital on Monday launched three new healthcare initiatives for this year under the slogan "We Continue: Renewed Initiatives, Advanced Care." The initiatives include performing 1,000 endoscopic surgeries in the Orthopaedics Department (shoulder, knee, ankle), 600 spinal surgeries and 500 bariatric surgeries. The launch was held under the auspices of Dr Hilal bin Ali al Sabti, Minister of Health.

“What started as an idea has reached this far,” said Dr Al Sabti while addressing the medical fraternity, many of whom were honoured for their work.

Dr Rashid bin Mohammed al Alawi, Director-General of Khoula Hospital, said, “Today we have celebrated the outcome of the eight initiatives introduced last year directed towards reducing the waiting period of the patients. The outcome has been much better than what we had expected. Today, we are launching the second version of the initiatives. There are seven of them, such as spine surgeries, total knee replacements, sports injuries, and obesity surgeries, amongst others.

“We are looking at what our capacity is and how to increase the outcome by better utilisation of our working space in the outpatient clinics and operating theatres as well,” said Dr Al Alawi.

He pointed out that MRI, for instance, used to take a year for an appointment, but currently it takes hardly a week or less than a week, and sometimes three days.

He added that positive feedback has been expressed through social media as well.

“We still have a long way to go, but what is important is that we are in the right direction,” concluded Al Alawi while speaking to the Observer.

Last year’s initiative resulted in the successful implementation of 2,198 operations, which contributed to reducing waiting lists by 50%.

The initiative of “Implementing 12,000 MRI scans at Khoula Hospital” resulted in the successful completion of 13,566 MRI scans, with 45-50 scans being conducted daily. The initiative reduced the waiting period from 16 months to less than 3 to 5 days.

As part of the initiative to perform 1,000 tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy operations for children at Al Nahdha Hospital, a total of 1,551 operations were successfully completed, with 83 operations being carried out monthly at Khoula and Al Nahdha hospitals, resulting in a 50% reduction in waiting lists.

As part of the initiative to reduce waiting lists in the endoscopy department at Khoula and Al Nahdha hospitals, 2,321 endoscopies were performed at Khoula Hospital. The initiative reduced the waiting period from 14 months to one month. The initiative also included the implementation of more than 750 knee replacement surgeries at Khoula Hospital, reducing waiting lists from two years to less than two months over the past year.