Fangcang hospital () refers to a kind of makeshift/

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field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...

s used during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

in China.

History and usage

Such hospitals were intended for large-scale medical isolation and instituted either by establishing rapidly constructed

modular Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a s ...

portable building A portable, demountable or transportable building is a building designed and built to be movable rather than permanently located. Smaller version of portable buildings are also known as portable cabins. Portable cabins are prefabricated structu ...

s, or through the acquisition of indoor space within existing venues and even temporarily renovated

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational i ...

s and dorms in colleges and universities with enclosed

cubicle A cubicle is a partially enclosed office workspace that is separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually tall. Its purpose is to isolate office workers and managers from the sights and noises of an open workspace so that ...

s to assist

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dis ...

. Chinese literature has mentioned the concept of "medical Fangcang" as early as 1989. China has constructed fangcang hospitals during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and

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in January 2020, general medical institutions and the newly expanded pneumonia specialist hospital were overwhelmed by the sudden surge in

hospital bed A hospital bed or hospital cot is a bed specially designed for hospitalized patients or others in need of some form of health care. These beds have special features both for the comfort and well-being of the patient and for the convenience of he ...

demands by suspected COVID-19 cases. Many patients with existing conditions were also turned away, leading to deaths which were otherwise preventable. Authorities were criticized by experts and citizens alike. Meanwhile, the large number of low-severity cases — almost all are individuals with suspected or mild symptoms — still needed at least a fortnight of isolation (due to the

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). Officials decided against home isolation for mild to moderate cases, as home isolation is not always properly complied with and it was difficult to organize medical care and monitoring for those in isolation. Furthermore, home isolation could be psychologically taxing on the patients as the patients know that they are putting their family members at risk of infection. On the other hand, in-hospital isolation will hold up medical resources and increase the risk of

nosocomial A hospital-acquired infection, also known as a nosocomial infection (from the Greek , meaning "hospital"), is an infection that is acquired in a hospital or other health care facility. To emphasize both hospital and nonhospital settings, it is ...

exposure. Under such circumstances, the principle of centralized low-level care management of non-critical patients was adopted. The

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established 16 fangcang hospitals in Wuhan, providing a total of more than 20,000 beds. As of March 10, 2020, all patients admitted to the square cabin hospital of Wuhan Wushan Hongshan Stadium were discharged. Thus, all 16 fangcang hospitals in Wuhan completed their missions and their cabins were shut down.

Etymology

''Fangcang'' (), literally meaning "square cabin", is a Chinese term referring to a portable

modular building A modular building is a prefabricated building that consists of repeated sections called modules. Modularity involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site. Installation of the prefabricated ...

structure formed using a combination of various solid materials, most notably cargotectures. The concept of "Fangcang" was borrowed from military

s, which was initially introduced by the United States military, who has been making makeshift structures since the 1950s. Outside of the context of the

outbreak In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

, makeshift or Fangcang structures can refer to many kinds of modular structures.

Locations in Wuhan

The following Fangcang hospitals were in use in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

during the

: * Wuhan International Conference & Exhibition Center,

Jianghan District Jianghan District (, Yangtze and Han River) forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. The district is part of the historical Hankou. Geography ...

* Hongshan Stadium,

Wuchang District Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the r ...

* Wuhan Living Room,

Dongxihu District Dongxihu District () is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China, forming part of the city's western suburbs. It lies on the north (left) bank of the Han River. Along with Qiaokou, it ...

* Wuhan National Fitness Center,

Jiang'an District Jiang'an District () forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. Jiang'an District is located on the Yangtze's left (northwestern) shore, and includ ...

* Hongqiao Industrial Park,

Jing'an District Jing'an District () is one of the central districts of Shanghai. In 2014, it had 1,180,000 inhabitants in an area of . The district borders the Hongkou District to the east, Huangpu District to the east and south, Putuo District to the west, ...

Wuhan Stadium The Wuhan Sports Centre Stadium ( or Zhuankou Stadium () is sports complex with a multi-use stadium in Wuhan, China. Completed in 2002, it has an all-seated capacity of 54,000. Local football team Wuhan Guanggu played some high attendance matches ...

Qiaokou District Qiaokou District () forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China, situated on the northern (left) bank of the Han River. Along with Dongxihu, it is t ...

* Wuhan International Expo Center,

Hanyang District Hanyang District () forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. Currently, it is a district and stands between the Han River (right/southern bank) ...

Wuhan Sports Center Stadium The Wuhan Sports Centre Stadium ( or Zhuankou Stadium () is sports complex with a multi-use stadium in Wuhan, China. Completed in 2002, it has an all-seated capacity of 54,000. Local football team Wuhan Guanggu played some high attendance matche ...

, Wuhan Development Zone * Shipailing Senior Vocational High School, Hongshan District * Optics Valley Convention & Exhibition Center, Donghu Development Zone * Wuhan Meilian Group’s former Rihai Industrial Park plant, Hongshan District * Dahua Mountain Outdoor Sports Center,

Jiangxia District Jiangxia District () is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China, situated on the eastern (right) bank of the Yangtze River. Jiangxia district has an area of and a population of 680,0 ...

* Huangpi Stadium,

Huangpi District Huangpi District () is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China, situated on the northern (left) bank of the Yangtze River. The Sheshui enters the Yangtze at Huangpi. The district is pr ...

* WISCO Sports Center, Qingshan District * Yangtze River Media Zhiyin Practice Training Base, Caidian District

Outside Mainland China

The first comparable makeshift hospital built during Russia's outbreak was built at Golokhvastovo in suburban

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

in March 2020. Similar makeshift hospitals were successively built in countries including

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and the

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. In Singapore, isolation facilities which were repurposed existing large-scale facilities, like the

Singapore Expo Singapore EXPO is the largest convention and exhibition venue in Singapore with over 100,000 square metres of column-free, indoor space spread over 10 halls. The center was designed by Cox Richardson Rayner, built by PSA International, and funded ...

, are partially modelled after the Fangcang hospital design.

History and usage

Etymology

Locations in Wuhan

Outside Mainland China

See also

References

Further reading