| Verified against primary record | |
| Stated ministry goal | Reducing treatment abroad[1] |
|---|---|
| Medical tourism in the strategy | Not discussed; no reference to foreign patients coming to Oman[1] |
| Current health expenditure | About 3.8 per cent of GDP, below the regional and global averages cited[1] |
| Out-of-pocket spending | 6.4 per cent of total health expenditure[1] |
| Hospital ownership (2019) | Government owned about 60.2 per cent of hospitals, holding about 73.4 per cent of beds[1] |
| Key health workers (2017) | 6.2 per 1,000 population, against a regional average of about 2[1] |
| Independently reported | |
| Regional outbound pattern | Visa restrictions reported to have pushed many Middle Eastern patients towards Southeast Asia[3] |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. The strategic document consulted gives no figures for how many Omani patients are treated abroad, at what cost, or in which countries, despite naming the reduction of such treatment as a goal. No official Omani count of foreign patients treated in Oman was located. No typical cost range is given because no official Omani source publishes prices paid by foreign patients. | |
Medical tourism in Oman appears in the country’s own strategic health planning only in reverse. The WHO country cooperation strategy agreed with Oman’s Ministry of Health for 2021 to 2025 does not discuss medical tourism, health tourism or foreign patients coming to Oman, and mentions patient movement across borders twice, both times as outbound treatment the ministry intends to reduce.
A goal of sending fewer patients out
The strategy refers to a planned health road map intended to address missing services and technologies, with treatment abroad named in that context, and an annex lists reducing treatment abroad among Ministry of Health goals.[1]
Read together, those two references describe outbound medical travel as a symptom of gaps in domestic provision rather than as a patient entitlement or a market. The framing is close to Oman’s neighbours in the Gulf, where state systems fund treatment abroad for services not available at home, and close also to the Chinese designated-zone rationale of retaining patients who would otherwise travel.[1]
The document gives no figures on how many Omani patients are treated abroad, what it costs or where they go. A stated goal of reducing an activity, with no published measure of that activity, cannot be assessed for progress.[1]
The system behind the gaps
Oman delivers care through primary facilities ranging from basic health centres to local hospitals, with governorate hospitals providing secondary care and national referral hospitals providing tertiary and specialised care. The strategy records that national referral hospitals are severely congested with cases that may not require that level of care, and that health centres designed for about 10,000 people mostly serve more than 15,000 in urban areas.[1]
Financing is unusually light on patients. Current health expenditure is about 3.8 per cent of GDP, below the regional and global averages the document cites, while out-of-pocket payments are kept relatively low at 6.4 per cent of total health expenditure and public services are nearly free at the point of use. Government health spending per capita rose 54 per cent between 2010 and 2017, and health’s share of fiscal space reached a record 11 per cent in 2019, though the document notes that falling oil prices may weaken it. Medicines account for about 7.3 per cent of recurrent ministry spending.[1]
In 2019 the government owned and ran about 60.2 per cent of hospitals, holding about 73.4 per cent of hospital beds. The strategy records that the government is expanding the role of the private sector and establishing a national accreditation system, while noting substantial differences in the quality of services between public and private providers and calling for a road map to guide private sector growth.[1]
On workforce, key health workers numbered 6.2 per 1,000 people in 2017 against a regional average of about 2 per 1,000, with Omani nationals making up 56 per cent of the health workforce at the end of 2017 and only 9 per cent of Omani health workers employed in the private sector. Baseline densities per 10,000 people are given as 20.8 doctors, 44.0 nurses, 3.2 dentists and 5.7 pharmacists.[1]
Foreign residents and foreign patients
The strategy records that unskilled expatriate workers in poor conditions reportedly face difficulties accessing healthcare, and that compulsory health insurance for expatriates is being introduced, which it describes as moving Oman closer to universal coverage.[1]
As in the rest of the Gulf, this means that most non-citizen patients in Oman are resident workers rather than medical travellers, and that any count of foreign patients would describe the former. The distinction is the one Latvia writes into its statistical definition and the one that defeats published foreign-patient figures in several larger countries.
A WHO editorial on the organisation’s expanded presence in the Gulf records that rising healthcare costs were considered a signal for health sector reform across the region, alongside a drift towards hospital-based and tertiary care, demand for advanced technology and costly medicines, and difficulty retaining a sustainable health workforce. It makes no mention of medical tourism either.[2]
On outbound movement, an executive briefing published by the United States International Trade Commission recorded that visa restrictions had pushed many Middle Eastern patients towards Southeast Asia. That is a regional observation from 2015 and not an Omani figure, and the briefing states that its views are the author’s rather than the Commission’s.[3]
Limits of the evidence
This entry rests principally on one strategic document covering 2021 to 2025, drafted before the effects of the pandemic had been assessed. It contains no patient flow figures in either direction, so nothing here quantifies medical travel to or from Oman, and nothing has been estimated. Oman’s health ministry website was not examined for this article, so any ministry statement on inbound patients is not reflected here.
See also
- Medical travel for unavailable treatments, the demand Oman’s road map is meant to close
- Government-funded treatment abroad, the category Oman seeks to reduce
- Medical tourism in China, whose designated zone follows a similar retention rationale
- Expatriate healthcare, which describes most non-citizen care in Oman
- Medical tourism and health system capacity, the congestion the strategy describes
References
- World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. Country Cooperation Strategy for WHO and Oman 2021-2025. Cairo, 2021. Verified against primary record: the document was opened and the absence of any discussion of medical or health tourism or of foreign patients coming to Oman, the two references to treatment abroad in the health road map and in the annex of ministry goals, the absence of any figures on patients treated abroad, the service delivery structure and the congestion of national referral hospitals, the health centre population loads, current health expenditure at about 3.8 per cent of GDP, out-of-pocket payments at 6.4 per cent, the 54 per cent per capita spending rise between 2010 and 2017, the record 11 per cent fiscal share in 2019 and the oil price caveat, medicines at about 7.3 per cent of recurrent spending, the 2019 hospital and bed ownership shares, the expansion of the private sector and national accreditation system, the noted quality differences, the health workforce density figures and national and private sector shares, and the statements on expatriate workers’ access and compulsory insurance were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Bou Haka, R., Hafeez, A., Attatrah, T. and Al-Mandhari, A. Eastern Mediterranean Region Vision 2023 and expansion of WHO presence at country level: new WHO offices in Bahrain and Kuwait. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, volume 27, number 7, 2021. Verified against primary record: the editorial was opened and the identification of rising healthcare costs as a signal for reform, the shared challenges of tertiary drift, technology and medicine costs and workforce retention, and the absence of any reference to medical tourism were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Chambers, A. Trends in U.S. Health Travel Services Trade. Office of Industries, United States International Trade Commission, Executive Briefing on Trade, August 2015. Independently reported: the briefing was opened and the statement that visa restrictions had pushed many Middle Eastern patients towards Southeast Asia was read. The briefing states that the views expressed are the author’s and not those of the Commission, and it is placed in this band for that reason. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: this entry reports a stated ministry goal of reducing treatment abroad together with the absence of any published measure of that treatment, and draws no inference about its scale. The health system figures are included because they are what the source quantifies, and they are not presented as patient flow data. No official Omani count of foreign patients was located, and no figure has been estimated in either direction.