Coronablog on the Super-Hospital | Runa Johannessen

20.3.2020. EPIDEMICS

The current pandemic reorients our conception and management of the health care system. From a system of minute control to alert emergency. After a century of increased specialization and centralization, medical development of prophylaxis and treatment, new health and illness profiles/issues; we are at present equipped with a health care and hospital system that is well geared and tuned for the planned and calculated. It is optimized and made efficient to run (yet short of breath) on the margin of needs. There should be no empty beds. The corona virus pandemic challenge the capacity of the health care systems as it exceeds the Excels. We need more beds, hands, kits. What are the contingency plans? Will we see a new version of the epidemic hospital being built? [1930: 15 out of 166 Danish hospitals were epidemiological hospitals, most of which were closed down during the 1950s and 60s] Emergency hospitals in Denmark similar to those quickly erected in China at the moment — is this the reality we will see in the coming weeks? Who are planning and constructing the epidemic hospitals for DK anno 2020, where will they be, how will they be manned, what will they look like, what will be the spatial technology informing their design?