NCT to train Muhimbili hospital staff to boost medical tourism
AS Tanzania gears up to promote its medical tourism, the National College of Tourism (NCT) intends to train medical staff of the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) on hospitality.
This is because the MNH receives good number of patients from outside the country who do medical tourism.
Therefore, the training is expected to make the medical staff acquire knowledge on hospitality on top of their professional skills so as to treat well the people who come for health tourism.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam recently, Principal of the NCT, Dr Florian Mtey, said that the college aims at helping the MNH training its staff so as to increase quality of the services provided to patients from foreign countries.
“The staff are service providers at the hospital and for us tourism experts is important that we should help in making sure the hospital provides quality services to the patients. We see it’s a right time to work together to improve the services,” he said during a joint-press conference organised by the two institutions.
“We both have to sit and look at important areas that are involved in providing services to foreign customers,” further said Dr Mtey.
On his part, MNH Executive Director Prof. Mohamed Janabi said: “It was true that Tanzania is among the nations in the Sub-Saharan African countries that are blamed of lack of hospitality while providing medical services to patients.
“We can do the operations perfectly, do the kidney transplants and bone marrow, but our customer service has to be improved. Therefore, it is healthy that we cooperate with the NCT in improving the services, not just services.”
Prof Janabi, who is also the chairperson of the medical tourism coordinating committee in the country, said the sixth-phase government under Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan has invested a lot in the health sector from the level of Dispensaries, Health Centres, District Hospitals, Regional Hospitals, Zonal and National Hospitals, but the challenge in customer services must be addressed.
