It is no doubt good news for Hong Kong society that the temporary hospital set up specifically for COVID-19 patients next to the AsiaWorld-Expo and Hong Kong International Airport will soon begin receiving patients. It can accommodate up to 820 persons with negative pressure beds for treatment in isolation. However, the temporary hospital is not just a means to fight the pandemic but also a case for study in Hong Kong’s public health policies as a whole.
Negative pressure hospital beds are crucial to saving the lives of COVID-19 patients, given how easy it is for them to infect others if they are not isolated as soon as they test positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, aka the novel coronavirus. Take the United Kingdom for example. The shortage of negative pressure beds is so acute in most cities that many patients have to be treated in ambulances or even in their residences, significantly increasing the risk of neighborhood outbreaks. Data collected by Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center shows the UK currently ranks fifth in the world for the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which is growing fast as we speak and pushing demands up for negative pressure beds at hospitals across the country, creating a vicious cycle and nightmare for health workers as well as the government. The UK’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned last month: “We have faced several grave moments during our battle against coronavirus. But right now, the country is perhaps facing the most serious yet.” In comparison, Hong Kong is truly blessed to have more than 800 extra negative pressure beds ready for treating COVID-19 patients in isolation.
With strong support from the central government Hong Kong should be proactive in not only combating the COVID-19 pandemic but also facing future challenges head on
Temporary as it is called, the COVID-19 hospital is built strictly to anti-epidemic standards. Located on the southwest side of AsiaWorld-Expo, the medical facility is 43,000 square meters in building area on a 29,000-square-meter piece of land, including six isolation wards, a clinical building, a nurse station, a pathology lab and other essential units. The isolation ward building is divided into clean, semi-contaminated and contaminated zones, designed to prevent cross-infections among patients, nurses and doctors effectively. All negative pressure wards are designed to regular hospital specifications for infectious disease patients, carefully constructed and thoroughly inspected upon completion.
Construction of the temporary hospital began in September last year and took about four months to complete. It was a remarkable feat for Hong Kong thanks two key factors: resources and technology. In terms of resources, the central authorities took care of everything related to the construction and furnishing, including all the clinical equipment and auxiliary units, thus not only easing the financial burden of the Hong Kong SAR government but also the time that it would have spent had it gone through all the bureaucratic red tape inherited from the British system. As for technology, the need to save time meant the temporary hospital must be built in the simplest way possible without quality compromise. Normally a hospital of this size and sophistication would take three or four years to complete, but this one had only four months tops. To do it, the mainland contractor transported a whole negative pressure 800+bed temporary hospital in over 520 prefabricated modular integrated construction units to Hong Kong and assembled them on site after the foundation, pipes and power lines were all in place. Thousands of skilled construction workers from the mainland divided into teams of 2,000 or so to work 8-hour shifts a day each, using more than 10 cranes at the same time without getting in each other’s way. The construction project was assigned by the central government to the Guangdong provincial and Shenzhen municipal governments, which hired all the professionals and suppliers, logistics and all, to build the temporary hospital from start to finish and handover in just four months.
It reminded me of a promise Vice-Premier Han Zheng made when he met with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in Beijing last November. He said, “The central authorities will support whatever is conducive to maintaining the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, to enhancing Hong Kong compatriots’ well-being and to boosting integrated development of Hong Kong and the mainland. Right now Hong Kong’s top priority is the fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and the central government will of course support it all the way.” That said, Hong Kong society should take this opportunity to think about what the city can do to help stop the spread of COVID-19 so that we can start economic recovery as soon as possible.
Fighting the pandemic is our top priority right now but not the only challenge going forward. With strong support from the central government, Hong Kong should be proactive in not only combating the COVID-19 pandemic but also facing future challenges head on. We can and should learn from the innovative construction of the temporary hospital by mainland professionals and use “breakthrough thinking” behind the MiC technology as inspiration to pursue healthy development; while keeping the right mentality toward our relationship with the central authorities and mainland compatriots in working together for a better future.
The author is senior research officer of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
