After forty years inside Oman's health system — as a surgeon, a hospital director and a national regulator — Dr. Mazin Al Khabouri asks the question free healthcare cannot keep avoiding.
On sale worldwide from 11 September 2026 · Published by Austin Macauley, London
In much of the Gulf, seeing a doctor costs little or nothing. It is one of the region's proudest achievements — and yet our people grow heavier, sit longer, and fall ill younger. This book puts its finger on why: when treatment is free at the point of use, staying healthy can begin to feel like a waste of effort.
Written from forty years inside the clinic, the hospital boardroom and the Ministry of Health, the book travels from Bismarck's Germany and Britain's NHS to the clinics of Muscat — asking what the world's health systems have learned, what they keep getting wrong, and how countries like Oman can keep care free and keep people well.
It is not an argument against free healthcare. It is an argument for designing it so that it survives.
Bismarck, Beveridge and the systems they inspired — what each model gets right, and at what cost.
Diabetes, obesity and heart disease now cause most deaths worldwide — and most of it is avoidable.
What free care does to patients, doctors and budgets — the good, the wasteful and the fixable.
Careful co-payments, family-doctor gatekeeping, digital triage — practical tools with evidence behind them.
Telemedicine, AI and value-based care — and what they mean for systems built last century.
Case studies from home — Dhamani, public-private partnership, and lessons from COVID-19.
For Services to the Deaf, 2014
For Excellence in Teaching, 2007
From cochlear implants to health policy — the same throughline runs through all of it: restoring hearing, and designing systems that keep people well.
Cochlear implants and complex auditory conditions, from congenital deafness in infants to progressive hearing loss in adults.
Four decades of ear surgery — twenty years leading the ENT department at Al Nahda Hospital, Muscat.
National screening drives and public health campaigns bringing early detection and prevention to whole populations.
How nations pay for care — and how to keep it free at the point of use without letting costs run away.
“An invaluable resource for students, researchers and health professionals… rich analysis, critique and comparison of healthcare models implemented across countries. I strongly encourage reading this book.”
Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari
Former WHO Regional Director, Eastern Mediterranean — from the Foreword
A short introduction to the ideas behind the book — why free healthcare needs a second look, and what forty years in the system taught him.
Paperback and e-book, on Amazon worldwide from 11 September 2026. If the question in the title has ever crossed your mind — in a clinic, a boardroom or a majlis — this book was written for you.
ISBN 9781037127243 (paperback) · 9781037127250 (e-book)
Dr. Al Khabouri is available for interviews, opinion pieces, podcasts and conference speaking on health economics, prevention and healthcare reform in the GCC.
malkhabori@gmail.comPublished by Austin Macauley Publishers, London · Cambridge · New York · Sharjah