The Serena Amboseli: Hoteliers outside Nairobi can share a piece of the pie with city hotels by hosting more medical events and seminars at affordable rates. Photo/FILE
The medical profession by virtue of its sheer volume of material needed at the grasp of doctors’ means we have to attend regular training, seminars and refresher courses. These are intended to keep health providers up to date with the latest trends and protocols for managing patients.
As a result, numerous events are held to convene these; Continuous Medical Education (CMEs,) Continuous Professional Development Courses (CPDs) and seminars. Most last for several hours while others take several days.
The events, apart from offering educational material, also importantly serve as socialising events and allow us to meet with colleagues working in faraway places.
Because of the nature of our work, most doctors especially the senior and junior ones, lack free time due to busy schedules. Hospitals run for 24 hours and the shortage of doctors doesn’t help since many of us work in two or three places.
Emotional and relationship strain amongst doctors and policemen rank almost equally. We give all our love and time to patients and the remnants to family.
In realisation of this, professional health bodies and medico-legal teams are promoting regular refresher trainings and family vacation time for employees.
This is aimed at reducing burnout and also errors prone from overworking or being out of date with practice requirements.
The President’s directive on stimulating domestic tourism offers an opportunity to the tourism and hotel industry players to tap into our group’s consumption of their services. With 10,000 doctors and more than 200 such annual gatherings, this is a growing market.
Currently, city hotels account for a huge chunk of such meetings and events. In 2013, more than 60 per cent of our events were in Nairobi. While the city has top hotels, external players can steal a piece of this pie.
According to Alex Sampeke, a tour operator in the Tsavo-Amboseli tourism circuit, “hotels based here have done a poor job of selling their venues as events destination for such seminars.”
His firm is one of those angling for a piece of this new directive guided opportunity. “For the same cost of an event in a city hotel, if we can offer a better family package then tourism circuits like ours could entice these events from the city and Mombasa.”
“In the off-peak tourism seasons, doctors’ events could be organised and if properly packaged allow them to bring their families along to enjoy the bush. This would lower idle capacity operational overheads”, the Sampeke African Safaris Director says.
Another area is air travel for medics in particular who frequently travel both abroad and domestically to work and for these events. Local airlines should see this as an opportunity to move them from road to air travel with special doctors’ group package.
The blame however isn’t solely on hotel and tour operators, the various doctors’ bodies have not taken advantage of their numbers. Teachers have successfully bargained for special rates, including bank loans. Medics must also embrace rest from work.
