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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

UK firm to build three major hospitals in Oman

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In a major boost for Oman’s public healthcare sector, the British-based International Hospitals Group (IHG) has secured funding to the tune of around £500 million (approximately RO 250 million) from UK Export Finance (UKEF), Britain’s principal export credit agency, to support the construction of three major hospitals of the Ministry of Health in the Sultanate.


Buckinghamshire-based IHG, which has delivered large-scale healthcare projects around the world, has won a contract to design and build major hospitals in Salalah, Al Suwaiq and Khasab under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement with Oman’s Ministry of Health. The three hospitals will be equipped to provide intensive care, emergency services and specialist baby care.


On Thursday, UKEF announced that it has “provided support to help win these major contracts in Oman, and provided a loan, repayable on a commercial basis”.


Britain’s International Trade Secretary, Liz Truss, was quoted as stating: “The size of this contract demonstrates the appetite for the UK’s world leading healthcare expertise across the globe. I am delighted UK Export Finance is supporting the construction of these three hospitals which will not only improve healthcare provision in Oman but will also expand IHG’s overseas business.”


According to the statement, IHG will provide a full design, construction and services package for all three hospitals. Work will also include the construction of emergency power systems, maintenance facilities, roads and other associated infrastructure.


Under agreements signed by the Ministry of Health in November 2017, the hospital projects at Salalah, Al Suwaiq and Khasab are envisioned as referral healthcare institutions.


In Salalah, the ministry has outlined plans for the construction of a new Sultan Qaboos Hospital on over 200,000 sq metres of land with a capacity of 620 beds. Distributed across seven floors of the structure will be a total of 16 inpatient sections catering to all specialisations as well as as outpatient clinics, accidents and emergency units for adults and children, renal medicine unit, burns unit, fully-equipped radiology department, central laboratory, intensive care units for adults and children, special care baby unit (SCBU), rehabilitation unit, operation theatres, stroke unit, maternity wards, chemotherapy unit, private ward, medical training and learning centre, entertainment area and other support services.


Proposed in Al Suwaiq is a 260-bed institution equipped with outpatient clinics, nephrology unit, day-care unit, intensive care units for adults and another for children, SCBU, burns and rehabilitation unit, cardiology intensive care unit, surgery department, internal medicine department, paediatric as well as maternity wards and operation theatres.


The Khasab hospital, with 150 beds, will include outpatient clinics as well as other highly specialised units.


Investments in all three hospital projects were estimated at RO 270 million at the time.


The hospitals were listed among a number of developmental projects identified for priority implementation in the 2020 State Budget announced by the Omani government on Wednesday.


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