MUSCAT: While the number of Omani health workers witnessed a rise of five per cent in 2019 compared to 2016, pharmacists registered the largest increase as their number exceeded the 40 per cent mark during the period.
According to data from the ministry of health, the total number of physicians increased by approximately four per cent with dentists accounting for three per cent.
“The development in the field of health services has been accompanied by a significant growth in the workforce in the ministry thanks to the Omanisation policy”, said Dr Omar Abdulaziz al Farsi, Director of Information and Statistics Department in a statement.
The total number of workforce in the ministry, despite a marginal fall, stands now at 39,413 employees at the end of 2019 compared to 39,506 in 2016.
Dr Al Farsi said that the expansion of health services, in terms of quantity and quality, and the increase in the population have led to an increase in the number of outpatient visit for the year 2019 by about 100,000 visits compared to 2016.
“This shows an average 5.6 visits per Omani capita in 2019”, he said.
According to statistics provided by him, the ministry performed about 118,000 operations with a 6 per cent increase, and about 29 million laboratory examinations with a 9.5 per cent increase, and more than 1.7 million radiology with a 7 per cent rise.
At the same time, the increase in the number of dialysis units all the governorates paved way for doing a total of 292,000 sessions of dialysis in 2019 compared to 204,000 in 2016 with an increase of 7.7 per cent.
On the other hand, the data showed that the number of admissions decreased from about 343,000 patients in 2016 to 331,000 in 2019.
Thus, said Dr Al Farsi, “the increase in the number of beds together with the decrease in the number of inpatients has resulted in a 4 per cent decrease in beds occupancy rate”.
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