Private hospital sponsors biggest sports tourism event in Fiji

Fiji’s largest state-of-the-art 130-bed specialty hospital has gone one step ahead in promoting medical and sports tourism by sponsoring a major event scheduled for 2027 in Nadi.
Located a stone’s throw away from the Nadi International Airport, Pacific Specialist Healthcare (PSH) Hospitals have confirmed their $150,000 sponsorship for the inaugural Pan Pacific Hash 2027 that is expected to attract 2000 hash runners from across the world.

PSH Hospitals founder and chief executive officer Parvish Kumar says he is very happy to support an event of such magnitude for many reasons.
“At PSH Hospitals we always promote an active and healthy lifestyle to combat NCDs and members of Hash House Harriers across the globe are very good ambassadors around the world,” Mr Kumar said.

Mr Kumar said he accepted the offer of sponsorship from the organisers because of the magnitude of the event and the good track record of the last such event being the 2018 Interhash that was also held in Nadi.

He said with the registration and launching of PSH Foundation soon, the concept of assisting patients with surgeries and treatments that they are unable to afford will also align well with the charitable cause of the international hash event.

“The red dress charity event did wonders the last time and a lot of money was collected for a charitable cause and this time around the organisers will assist patients with funding via the PSH Foundation which will be launched soon.

“The last event in 2018 attracted close to 2000 runners from across the world and a similar number or even more are expected this time because of the early start to registrations and various marketing campaigns,” Mr Kumar said.

He said PSH Hospitals will continue to support such events consistently and not just as a one-off sponsorship.
Organised by the Fiji Hash House Harriers which is an amalgamation of all active hash chapters in the country, the inaugural Pan Pacific Hash 2027 is scheduled to be held in Nadi from September 16-18.

Event director Dr Ram Raju said they have started marketing the inaugural event at a large scale via social media handles and traditional methods as members will now be personally taking the message across by distributing brochures and accepting registrations while attending international hash events which take place between March next month leading up to the Pan Pacific Hash in 2027.

“Following our success in 2018, we were on the verge of creating history by hosting the first-ever South Pacific Interhash 2021 but all our plans and dreams of doing so came to a grinding halt because of the global Covid-19 pandemic,” Dr Raju added.

“After 2018 Interhash, the idea of an additional international hash event was mooted as many international hashers had shown keen interest to return to Fiji.”
He said after the successful execution of the 2018 international hash meet, a total of $132,808 raised through the red dress charity run and the money was donated to the Nadi Sub-Divisional Medical Hospital.

“There are more than 2000 chapters of Hash House Harriers all over the world so this invitation will be reaching out to every chapter that is active and we are quite confident of getting one of the best turnouts come 2027.

“I am sure the word is already out there through a lot of chapters in Australia and New Zealand and now we want it to be extended to all the South East Asian countries and basically all over the world including Europe, North America, and even some chapters in South America.

“Hash is very strong in Europe, particularly England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, as well as most of the European countries so they will all be aware of this event and can travel without any medical concerns knowing the world-class capabilities Fiji now has with the establishment of the state-of-the-art PSH Hospitals who are our major sponsors.

“This event will also promote Fiji in terms of sports tourism and medical tourism as well given the status and capabilities of our sponsors – PSH Hospitals which is now aligning itself with the Fiji Government’s vision to promote the country as a hub for health tourism while caring for the local population at the same time,” Dr Raju said.

by Shalendra Prasad, a freelance photojournalist based in Nadi, Fiji