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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

OMA to set up hospital by volunteer doctors in Amerat

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Muscat: The Oman Medical Association (OMA) is joining hands with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to combat the novel Coronavirus with a hospital to treat Covid-19 cases.  This will be the first hospital in Oman that is going to be run by volunteering doctors and nurses.


The OMA is expected to begin its hospital operation located at Al Amerat this week and is currently going through the last minute touches before it officially starts registering patients.


“In the beginning of February when the WHO announced the pandemic, the OMA Board discussed how to contribute and assist the government.  Usually we have a focal point between the Ministry of Health and the Oman Medical Association,” explained Dr Waleed al Zedjali, OMA President.


The OMA began with awareness programmes for the doctors, health workers and general public.  “We produced more than 60 video clips on the awareness campaign on precautions to be taken.  We formed a committee and one of the decisions was to have a mobile hospital like a camp for patients who have already been screened and are positive,” Dr Waleed said.


The Association came up with a 60-bed hospital in Al Amerat equipped with four beds for ICU.


“The hospital was not ready but we spoke to the owner and that is when we decided to use this hospital for the treatment of Covid-19 patients with moderate to mild symptoms and we will also accept cases admitted at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Stadium in Bawshar, Al Nahda Hospital or other hospitals because government alone cannot handle all the covid-19 cases.


Once we visited the hospital we converted everything for safe handling of covid-19 cases,” noted Dr Waleed.


The whole hospital is run by doctors and nurses who are members of the Oman Medical Association.


“We had 40 volunteers and it is increasing.  We now have 30 nurses and 25 doctors.  They are doing this service apart from their official working hours.  We have divided the responsibility such as management, nursing section, sterilisation, pharmacy, laboratory and admission and so on.  This is our contribution to the Government of Oman with the support of the Ministry of Health along with the private sector establishments.


The MoH gave us the clearance and the private sector gave us the financial and knowledge support as well as equipment.  The companies came forward to help us in various aspects,” Said Dr Waleed.


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