Report by Jordan's Petra News Agency as part of FANA's health affairs
By Omar Al-Dahamsheh
AMMAN, March 25 (KUNA) -- Jordan is witnessing a remarkable development in its health infrastructure with the introduction of state-of-the-art technologies in government, military and university hospitals, and classified by World Tourism Organization as a center for medical tourism in the Middle East in 2023.
The Jordanian government is relentlessly improving health services for citizens nationwide, particularly in rural areas, making it among the top 10 countries in the world with health care, nursing, medical engineering and pharmacology.
Jordan, which has 121 hospitals, of them 71 private, has cheap yet high-quality health services compared with many countries around the world, offering care in line with strict criteria, coupled with easy visa procedures, and secured and stable environment.
The association of private universities said in a report to Petra that 203,000 people visited Jordan for treatment in 2003, and the Kingdom received around a million patients from 71 countries in the five years preceding 2003.
The Ministry of Health said medical tourism was one of its priorities for economic growth, and there were further potential in medical tourism in Jordan, which offered 70 million health services in 2023.
The Ministry said it was expanding health services every year by reaching out to all areas nationwide, making vaccines available to all categories, installig computers in health centers, offering national programs for healthy lifestyle awareness among different age groups and increasing staff - doctors and nurses.
The ministry signed agreements and partnerships with four universities to improve skills of doctors and nurses, and increased number of doctors in residency programs by 22 percent.
The Ministry's 2023-25 strategic plan aimed at recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and improve health care in general, and preventive medicine, family care, human resources and health information systems in particular. (end) bs