The role of planning in the development of Oman's health care system:

Issue:  In 1970 Oman lacked even the foundations of a modern healthcare system.  There were fewer than 10 hospitals and clinics and only a handful of allopathic medical practitioners.  The research goal is to understand in detail how in 30 years Oman had achieved a healthcare system rated eighth best by WHO in 2000 in order to extract generalizable lessons.

 

Methodology:  This social science research will initially adopt the operating assumption that an iterative process of planning and implementation is central to understanding the structure (or organization), function (or delivery) and financing of healthcare.  However, it will also subject that assumption to critical examination in light of empirical evidence of plan successes, failures or the possibility that plans did not guide actual decision-making for the healthcare system (“disconnect”).

 

Data:  Analysis of 7 five-year plans (since 1975), other documents available from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and WHO statistics provide primary historical data.   Academic medical journals published by MOH (since 1980s) and Sultan Qaboos University (since 2000) record milestones and problems perceived by hospital-based practitioners working within the healthcare system.  Interviews with healthcare providers, administrators and MOH officials generate insight into the context for interpreting the written materials.

 

Results:  Findings and discussion involve:

• The balance and changes over time between providing medical services to individuals and population-focused public health;
• Problems of linking primary care and hospital-based specialist care inherent in the British model of organizing healthcare;
• Relationship between planning and financing the health care system;
• Structure and function of regionalization in planning and delivering medical services;
• Role, if any, of NGOs and for-profit enterprise in providing healthcare; 
• Oman’s apparent escape from the “curse” of oil (i.e., the many examples of oil-rich countries whose wealth has bought neither health nor a well-functioning society).

 

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