The World Health Organization’s country office in Oman, in coordination with the Primary Health Care (PHC) Department in the Ministry of Health (MoH), organised a joint assembly on Thursday at Grand Millennium Hotel, Muscat.

The meeting was inaugurated and chaired by Dr Jean Jabbour, WHO representative to Oman, and Dr Said al Lamki, director general of PHC at MoH, and was attended by an array of senior members from the PHC department and WHO.

Delivering his keynote speech, Dr Jabbour expressed WHO’s appreciation and support to the efforts of the Ministry of Health, especially in the past year in general and the area of primary healthcare in particular. 

He said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected lives and livelihoods in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. It has 

interrupted essential services for immunisation, infectious and chronic diseases, maternal health and more, putting millions at risk. An emergency is not the time to stall investment in public health. On the contrary, as part of the response to COVID-19, countries must invest more and invest better in strong health systems to ‘Protect Everyone’ – during and after the pandemic. 

“Strong primary healthcare can provide people with the quality care they need, right in their communities.” 

He reiterated WHO’s commitment to taking forward the primary healthcare priorities of the MoH.

For his part, Dr Lamki explained that to achieve ‘Health for All by All’, it is critical that no one is left behind. 

He said, “Primary healthcare has always been a priority for Oman, even decades before this current pandemic. Our frontline caregivers have always led the charge for ‘Health for All by All’, and it is our responsibility to make sure they have the education, training, resources and support they need to enable them and protect them.” 

The meeting reviewed the year 2020 progress in the implementation of the WHO-MoH Country Support Plan (CSP). In addition, the meeting discussed the plan for 2021 implementation of priority PHC activities and deliberated on Oman priority areas of intervention for the new biennium 2022-2023 and for the Country Cooperation 2021-2025.