I am responding to your comment article on September 6 ‘Superficiality, not commitment, behind medical tourism”.
My organisation healthCare cybernetics UK LTD (hCc) –
www.healthcarecybernetics.com - has submitted a proposal regarding a systematic national level health tourism development master plan to the various relevant government organisations in Cyprus on a number of occasions.
hCc is internationally recognised as the ‘thought leader’ on the subject of health tourism innovation and destination-level health tourism development.
My ‘Cyprus connection’ relating to health tourism dates back to 2006.
As CEO of healthCare cybernetics, I first got to meet and know those in the Cyprus team involved in developing and promoting Cyprus as a health tourism destination, at the 1st World Health Tourism Congress
on Wiesbaden, Germany in 2006 where I was an invited speaker.
Subsequently, I was the exclusive instructor at a health tourism workshop organided by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation in Limassol in November 2006.
When Cyprus hosted the 2nd World Health Tourism Congress in Limassol in March 2007 I was again an invited speaker and in 2009 in Nicosia I conducted a two-day seminar on health tourism development organised by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and
Industry.
And of course, I frequently meet and interact with individual health tourism stakeholders during my frequent visits to Cyprus.
In spite of my advice and the offerings, those involved in the health tourism and medical tourism ‘initiatives’ on the island persist on spending time and money on schemes and plans superficially and inexpertly formulated by individuals who do not have the appropriate pedigree and credentials – and consequently do not have a deep understanding of what is involved.
In view of this situation, some time back, I wrote and sent out an open letter outlining the details aiming to bring it to the attention of the top level decision makers and the engaged stakeholders. I argued that for Cyprus, health tourism is not something new. Consequently it is a matter of further developing rather than developing health tourism, de novo. And Cyprus has the preconditions and required infrastructure to become one of the preferred destinations in Europe. I also cautioned against the adoption of a narrow-focus approach development and promotion.
It is time Cyprus stopped wasting time and money ineffectively and hoping that ineffective initiatives will somehow translate into successes.
source: cyprus mail