Health

In the four decades after Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said assumed leadership in 1970, Oman made such strides in health care provision that the UN, in its “Human Development Report 2010”, declared it the most improved nation out of 135 countries. The sultanate is looking to breathe fresh momentum into the coming decades under its current long-term development plan, Health Vision 2050. Published in May 2014, just one month before the price of oil began to fall, the document laid out a roadmap for modernisation on an unprecedented scale, from building new specialised hospitals to digitising patient information systems. Perhaps most striking was its call for a major increase in the role of the private sector, which at the time made up a 10th of all health care provision.