The experience of Oman with establishing a field hospital during COVID-19 pandemic

Over the past fourteen months, services in various countries across the globe have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak of corona virus has been overwhelming on healthcare systems in particular; and this is likely to have a lasting impact on health ventures and delivery models over the coming few years. On 31st December 2019, the World Health Organization reported the first case of COVID-19, and since then 179,553,288 cases have been reported across the sphere. In Oman, the total number of cases reported reached 250,572 as of 21st June 2021. This is against a hospital ward bed capacity of 6,034 beds across all government and private hospitals in the country. Due to the healthcare system becoming overwhelmed by the load of cases detected, a field hospital was established to act as a main hub of care for COVID-19 cases in the country. The aim of this article is to highlight the process involved in establishing and operating the field hospital. The main aspects that will be covered are the objectives of establishing the hospital, operation, components, in addition to the management and provision of cadres in its departments. The objective is to enlighten healthcare providers and the public about this service and share the experience of establishing a field hospital during this period.