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Author of this media file is employee of Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia (MO RS) or Slovenian Armed Forces. Images taken from www.mo.gov.si and www.slovenskavojska.si can be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0-license.
26 Mar 2020

Several countries are erecting field hospitals in war like measures to prepare for an onslaught of corona patients

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Sweden's first field hospital is ready to receive corona patients for the first time since WWII. Earlier this week, Spain announced that they had converted a sports area in Madrid into a field hospital with over 1300 intensive care beds.

IFEMA becomes the "largest hospital in Spain": 1,396 beds enabled in less than 24 hours in a rapid response at the level of China

In less than 24 hours, the IFEMA fairground in Madrid has been adapted to enable 1,396 beds. "There are no precedents in our country. In less than 24 hours we have assigned three pavilions and have put them into operation in the face of the urgency that this situation requires," Eduardo López-Puertas, IFEMA general director, told RNE .

Adapted infrastructure:  The fair in Madrid is "the largest hospital in Spain Turning empty sports areas into hospitals? The president of the SRA, Daniel Pelegrina offered it to the governments, national and to the City. If the pandemic spreads, it would be a solution for treating mild patients.In an exceptional situation, different proposals and solutions must emerge. This is how they understood it in Madrid in the face of the increase in coronavirus cases, and in a few hours they transformed the fairground of the Spanish capital into the largest hospital in Spain ; a possibility that is already being analyzed in Buenos Aires with the property of the Rural de Palermo.

The Swedish Armed Forces began construction of the field hospital early Monday morning.

Doctor Bertil Andersson is impressed with how fast it has been constructed.



The last Swedish field hospital used in a real environment, ie not in exercise, was in connection with the Kuwait War.

"What I know is this is a unique use of field hospitals in Sweden. This is a field hospital designed to take care of wounded soldiers in war. Now we are converting it into a pandemic hospital to take care of seriously ill corona patients, ”says Karl Chevalley, regional emergency response physician.

First field hospitals in Sweden since the Second World War 

The 30 intensive care sites that are being built up at the Älvsjömässan fair in Stockholm also come from the repository's field hospital.

The field hospitals that are being built, first in Gothenburg at the Eastern Hospital and then at Älvsjömässan in Stockholm, are the first to operate on Swedish soil since the Second World War. The Armed Forces build the hospitals, but the medical services are then managed by ordinary county council staff.

 

Photo (Above): Wikipedia Commons. A Slovenian military field hospital (Illustration only, not connected to this article) Author of this media file is employee of Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia (MO RS) or Slovenian Armed Forces. Images taken from www.mo.gov.si and www.slovenskavojska.si can be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0-license.