Health system performance assessment and reforms, Oman.

Problem: To prioritize key areas of action and investment for the next strategic cycle of national development plans (2026-2031) in Oman, we needed a holistic view of the country's health system and its main deficiencies and inefficiencies.

Approach: Informed by the World Health Organization framework, our team of seven national health ministry staff and two international experts conducted a rapid health system performance assessment. We used already available data to identify system bottlenecks and their potential root causes, verifying our findings with key informant interviews.

Local setting: Oman's 4.9 million population is relatively young (average age 28 years) but ageing, with a mounting burden of chronic diseases. While health-care services are free for Omani nationals, more than 1.5 million expatriates rely on out-of-pocket payments for health-care services. Strengthening primary health care, improving the quality of care, providing financial protection, and ensuring that public and private health-care providers operate within the same legal and procedural framework are recognized as key national priorities.

Relevant changes: Our assessment highlighted the need to extend health service coverage to the whole population, strengthen private health-care sector governance, improve health education, increase financial investment, and expand the country's capacity for data collection and analysis.

Lessons learnt: The assessment framework allowed us to identify areas where information is lacking and use already available data to analyse multiple health outcomes. As well as identifying issues that need to be addressed during the next policy development cycle, our findings have contributed towards the preparation of a more extensive assessment.