CHI Hotels & Resorts (CHI) recently held an in-depth international conference on ‘Health & Safety’ at the Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa in San Anton for Health & Safety officers in all its properties worldwide. These included the hotel brands of Corinthia, Wyndham, Ramada Plaza and independent hotels.

Motivated by CHI’s health and safety expert Dr Jacqueline Tanti-Dougall, the three-day event had ‘Management of Health & Safety’ as its main topic and included the launch of CHI’s updated Health & Safety manual for each of its hotel properties.

The conference opened with an address by CHI’s chief executive officer and managing director Tony Potter, who stressed the importance of having uniform and stringent health and safety standards in all CHI’s hotels in order to ensure the well-being of its guests and team members at all times. Underlining the focus that CHI Hotels has on these important issues, the conference was also attended by the company’s chief financial officer Paul Bugeja.

Selected individuals from all CHI operated hotels have been appointed as safety officers and their visit to Malta was part of an ongoing ‘Train the Trainer’ programme that is being implemented across the brands that CHI operates, namely Corinthia Hotels, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Ramada Plaza hotels and other independently branded properties.

Tony Potter commented: “With some 5000 employees and as many resident guests and walk-in clients using our hotels at any given moment, health and safety issues are a major objective and the company’s inherent responsibilities enormous. It is for this reason that rather than outsourcing our requirements, we have chosen to empower our own people, who know our properties better than anyone, and whose intimate knowledge of their hotels can be relied upon to guarantee a high level of efficiency and commitment to our newly established health and safety standards.”

Topics and key speakers presented at the conference included “The Management of Health and Safety” and “Accident Investigation” by Dr Tanti-Dougall LL.D., “Loss Control – Liabilities”, by insurance consultant Stuart McCreadie, “Operational Risk Assessments”, by Kevin Gauci from the Occupational Health & Safety Authority (OHSA), “Controlling the Spread of Influenza”, by Dr Stanley Zammit MD and “The Corinthian Way Forward” by Dr Paul Sciriha MD.

The training officers also spent an entire day at the Civil Protection Department at Hal Far, where chief fire officer Anthony Pisani conducted hands-on training in fire-fighting and related techniques.

The conference also served as an opportunity for all participants from the various hotels to meet on a social level and experience the many attractions that Malta has to offer.

Proficiency certificates were awarded to all attendees and presented individually by Tony Potter at the end of the highly successful international conference on Health & Safety.