Oman’s Ministry of Health has announced that the sultanate will develop its first medical city for an investment of OMR479 million. A further OMR159.5 million will be set aside each year as operating costs.
Spanning over an area of 5 million square metres, the Oman medical city will be developed in four different phases. While the first two phases will focus on commercial operations, private medical facilities, and residential projects, the other phases will be allocated for government use. It will be constructed in the Barka region in northern Oman.
The medical city in Oman is a part of Oman’s Tanfeedh programme for economic expansion, which aims to reduce the sultanate’s dependence on oil and gas as its primary source of income.
According to Oman’s Undersecretary of Health Ali Al Hinai, the to-be-built medical city is not a reform in the health sector, but rather a quantum leap. He expects the medical city to provide a way to raise the sultanate’s quality of medical systems. He believes the project will garner revenue of OMR 7.776 million per year from the hospital beds alone.
Ali Al Hinai told the media that, “The medical city, which will be built in Al Fulaij – which is near almost half the people living in Oman, will cater to a large number of people with 1,249 hospital beds in its government hospital facilities, adding to the beds in the private hospitals in the area, as well as facilities for the Oman College for Medical Sciences, and finally, provide medical access to commercial areas.”
Last month, Oman announced that it will provide affordable health insurance to private sector employees, domestic workers, as well as visitors to Oman. These healthcare insurance are expected to roll out from mid-2020.