Muscat: More than 390 doctors resigned last year, the health minister told Oman’s Shura Council during a discussion at its session recently.
Shura Council members alleged that the doctors quit to protest against the failed delivery of a number of critical health projects promised by the Ministry of Health.
Health Minister Ahmad Al Saidi said the members should bring concrete evidence of such failures instead of making allegations.
“Stop being pessimistic, the health sector is significantly developing,” he said.
Ali Al Qutaiti, who heads the Health Committee at the Shura council, alleged that the ministry achieved only 36 per cent of its goals from its five-year development plan.
The members said that residents have been complaining of long waits and overcrowding at government hospitals.
Al Saidi attributed the overcrowding at health centres and hospitals in Salalah to the influx of Yemenis who have fled the war next door.
Yemenis account for 30 per cent of the patients in Sultan Qaboos Hospital in Salalah province, he said.
Al Saidi denied reports that senior Omani officials were hoarding medicine.
Plans for a new children’s hospital are on track, Al Saidi said, and promised to report back to Shura council members with more details in two weeks.
