Quit smoking, urges Oman's Royal Hospital doctor

Muscat: A senior consultant at the Royal Hospital has urged people to stop smoking in order to avoid cardiovascular diseases, which are the biggest killer after accidents.
“You buy a cigarette; you buy a disease for yourself. So you’re paying money to buy a disease,” he told Times TV in an exclusive interview during the Oman Health Exhibition and Conference.
The main cause for an increase in the number of deaths caused due to cardiovascular diseases, according to Dr Taha Al Lawati, is people’s lifestyle choices. “WHO (World Health Organisation) has stated that by 2020, non-communicable diseases will be the main cause of death in patients. WHO insists that we should have a healthy quality of life and that is something that we need to take care of. If we reduce fat intake, sugar intake, stop smoking, we can avoid cardiovascular diseases and cancers by 30 per cent. So lifestyle is important. Doing exercise and eating healthy is important,” he said.
Al Lawati also said that routine check-ups and early diagnosis is paramount in order to detect non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular problems and cancer. “People should understand these diseases are controllable, can be cured, and the only condition is that it should get diagnosed at an early stage,” he said as the world celebrates Breast Cancer Awareness month in October.
Awareness is key and without educated and aware patients, the best policies, missions and doctors will not help us achieve with anything, he said.
“When I started working in 2003, I had 80 per cent of patients getting vasectomies. Today, only 20 per cent are getting vasectomies and 80 per cent can avoid losing their breasts and they get their cancer treatment.”
He added, “Women are intelligent. They understand the need of coming early to the doctors. That’s a big achievement. A patient comes to me with Stage 1 breast cancer, there is a 96 per cent to 98 per cent chance of cure, Stage 2 – 90 per cent, Stage 3 - 75 to 80 per cent, and in Stage 4 the chances of cure come down.”
The Ministry of Health has a programme that enables women aged 40 and above to partake in routine health check-ups. In fact, the Ministry is currently working on an electronic programme that will enable easy access for patients.
“Ministry of Health is working on a system called A’shefaa. It is an electronic system, through which a patient with his ID number can be linked with any hospital. He’ll get the same treatment in whichever hospital he goes,” said Al Lawati.
“By 2020, we’ll have a system that covers all the health institutes in Oman.”