Oman’s health-care market is projected to be worth US$4.3bn by 2020, boosted by a five-year annual average growth rate of 12.9 per cent, according to Alpen Capital.
Alpen Capital, which estimates Oman’s health-care market size at US$2.3bn in 2015, forecasts the market to grow to US$2.6bn in 2016 - with an outpatient market size of US$1.6bn and an inpatient market size of US$1bn.
The outpatient and inpatient markets are expected to reach US$2.6bn and US$1.6bn, respectively, by 2020. Oman's hospital bed requirement is projected to grow at an annual average of 3.1 per cent in the next five years, suggesting a demand of more than 7,600 beds by 2020.
Alpen Capital on Tuesday released its GCC Healthcare Industry report, which presents the current state of the health-care industry in the region.
According to the report, the GCC health-care market is projected to grow at an average 12.1 per cent annually from an estimated US$40.3bn in 2015 to US$71.3bn in 2020. An increase in the population and rising cost of treatment are the primary factors aiding this growth, it said.
“In order to ease the growing pressure on the health-care system, the GCC governments are injecting huge funds as well as encouraging private sector participation to build hospitals and clinics, upgrade the existing infrastructure, and match the quality of services offered in developed countries. They are also investing heavily in technological advancements as well as rolling out mandatory health insurance schemes to further accelerate growth of the sector,” according to Sameena Ahmad, managing director of Alpen Capital (ME).
The report said that the GCC governments’ budgets are increasingly coming under pressure amid falling oil prices. “Accordingly, governments across the region are likely to curtail or defer their expenditure. A prolonged low oil price environment may influence the budgets of the GCC governments and, therefore, the healthcare spending,” it said.
