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This is aimed at reducing burnout and also errors prone from overworking or being out of date with practice requirements.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.
info@healthinfo.co.ke
@edwardomete
@edwardomete
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