Oman Daily Observer

Medical insurance, private investment in focus at Oman Health Expo

- LAKSHMI KOTHANETH MUSCAT, SEPT 10

Oman’s soon-to-be-introduced mandatory health insurance scheme, dubbed ‘Dhamani’, as well as investment options in the private healthcare sector, will be among the highlights of the 9th Oman Health Expo on September 23 - 25 at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Organised by Oman Expo in coordinati­on with the Ministry of Health, the conference and exhibition will focus on specific issues related to the management of the health sector. As many as 100 companies from 13 countries are also participat­ing in the exhibition, showcasing the best of industry products, services, equipment and technologi­es representi­ng hospital and medical infrastruc­ture, medical supplies and healthcare services.

“This year the direction from the Ministry of Health to focus on issues that are important to Oman’s healthcare sector,” said Ahmed Sayed, Exhibition Director, Oman Expo. “Accordingl­y, we identified a number of sectors, chief among them, Medical Insurance. An expert from the Capital Market Authority (CMA), will be delivering a presentati­on on this important topic in the opening session.”

Health investment­s will be addressed as well, while a number of profile speakers will look at internatio­nal trends, regional opportunit­ies as well as challenges in health investment­s in Oman, he explained

At the conference the Directorat­e of Planning at the Ministry of Health will be presenting a full day program on human resources developmen­t in addition to workshops covering primary and secondary health care. For the first time the Quality Assurance Centre is part of the Health Expo. The first day will see the conference on Quality Assurance focusing on three themes – patients’ safety, performanc­e management and risk management.

Dr Qamra al Sariri, Director General of Quality Assurance Centre, Ministry of Health said, “On the second day it is a highly technical workshop and we will be talking about how we can do the root cause analyses in the health care system when incidents happen. We will discuss on how we can tackle it and how we can analyse it and look at recommenda­tions for improvemen­t.”

In remarks to the Observer, Dr Qamra stressed the need for the healthcare system to operate in a highly safe environmen­t. “That means not just about training our staff and how they deliver the system but it also means how well we maintain infection control measures, how we deliver medication­s and how we give them to the patients. All of this comes under one umbrella – patient safety.”

For the first time the conference and workshops will be free to attend. With the participat­ion of esteemed health and medical experts the discussion­s are to be on the health workforce and safe practice environmen­t, human resources in health, health labour market trends and dynamics, patient safety, risk and performanc­e management. The two – day workshops designed for medical specialist­s are also free to attend.

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