The Omani government will announce a new policy on medicines in October to control the soaring prices being charged by private pharmacies, said Health Minister Ali bin Mohammed bin Moosa.
"The move is intended to bring down the exorbitant medicine prices of private pharmacies," he said in a policy statement to highlight the features of the new five-year plan, said the Gulf News.
“This puts an increased emphasis on Omanization - a campaign to reduce dependence on expatriates and make Oman self-sufficient in human resources.”
He said the government was doing its best to make medical treatment as accessible as possible.
"There is a dire need to control the prices of medicine for the convenience of citizens," Moosa said, adding that there were 47 hospitals countrywide, 110 health centers and nine polyclinics.
He said the new five-year plan envisaged construction of another nine polyclinics and 17 health centers. Nine other health centers are in various stages of construction.
"Efforts are being made to provide additional health services in areas with less population, since densely populated areas have already been covered."
He disclosed that a state-of-the-art cancer unit was being installed at the Royal Hospital, the country's best, offering the latest treatment, and that tenders would be invited by the end of the year, according to the paper – Albawaba.com
He said cancer was spreading as elsewhere in the world and the unit would go a long way to providing the much-needed treatment at home. He said Oman had achieved tremendous progress in health services to win laurels from the WHO, Unicef and other international agencies.
He said in the Sultanate,the health service was evaluated by the death rate, especially among infants."The infant death rate has declined to16.7 per cent per thousand from 147 per thousand in 1970.This is one of the best compared with other countries."
Dr Moosa said Oman had already eradicated many diseases like malaria,chickenpox and tuberculosis. This was done through a mass awareness campaign as well as vaccination. There had been no reported case of polio for some years.
Talking about AIDS, he said every effort was being made to avoid its spread and at the same time to provide patients with due treatment." He said almost 600 cases of AIDS have been reported in the country. He did not give a figure for fatalities, but a source told Gulf News that some 300 people had died of the disease.
Dr Moosa said the development of human resource remained a top priority. There were now 400 Omani doctors and 2,500 nurses and 800 expatriates had been replaced by nationals. "The government is aiming to Omanise the nursing field in all regions except Muscat during the current five-year plan."
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
