Muscat, The Governing Board of the Health Endowment Foundation held its first meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health (MOH).

During the meeting, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed al-Sa’eedi, Minister of Health was elected as the Chairman of the Health Endowment Foundation, Dr. Fatma Mohammed al-Ajmi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Administrative, Financial and Planning Affairs as the Deputy Chairman, and Dr. Halima Qalam al-Hinai, Acting Director General of Planning and Studies as the Secretary.

The meeting reviewed the Foundation’s Statute, and approved an executive committee to regulate the work of the Foundation. It also identified the required assets, and developed investment plans along with marketing plans to achieve the desired goals of the Foundation.

The idea of establishing this Foundation came due to challenges facing the health system in the Sultanate, such as high costs of health services, teaching, training and hiring workforce in the health field, as well as the high costs of medical equipment and devices, medications and biomedical technology. In order to address these challenges, efforts have been exerted for sustaining the financing of the health system. Health endowment is one of the funding alternatives for health system, which is adopted by a number of countries.

The most important tasks of the Governing Board are to formulate policies and general goals of the Foundation, providing the support to achieve and implement these policies and goals. In addition, the Governing Board has the full authority to issue the necessary decisions and procedures.

Source: Oman News Agency