Wuhan’s makeshift hospitals close after last patients are discharged
BEIJING — Wuhan in Central China’s Hubei province closed its last makeshift hospital on Tuesday afternoon, after all 15 such hospitals were cleared of patients.
The last batch of 49 patients left Wuchang makeshift hospital at 3:30 pm Tuesday. Wuchang was Wuhan’s first makeshift hospital repurposed from Hongshan Stadium.
Wang Chen, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said the makeshift hospitals achieved their purpose of expanding the capacity of treatment and admitting the maximum of patients by using the smallest amount of social resources and simplest site changes.
Wuchang received its first batch of patients with mild symptoms on Feb 5 and operated for 35 days. It was the earliest hospital put into use and the earliest hospital to discharge patients and start psychological counseling.
It offered 784 beds and has treated 1,124 patients. It discharged 833 patients, transferred 291 others, and had no deaths or medical staff infected.
Headed by People’s Hospital of Wuhan University, it was supported by 868 medical staff of 14 teams from nine provincial regions across the country.
Wan Jun, head of the hospital, said as the first temporary hospital put into use, Wuchang makeshift hospital faced many difficulties at first. It lacked logistical support, understanding and trust from patients and management experience.
The medical teams took two to three days to carry out treatment and stabilize the mood of patients and successfully reversed the unfavorable situation. On Feb 11, the hospital discharged 28 patients, who were also the first batch of discharged patients in the city.
Wan said since then, the hospital had patients discharged almost every day, assuaging the concerns of patients and greatly encouraging the medical staff in fighting the epidemic.
The hospital also established an expert group to strengthen supervision and patrol patients’ rooms. It was equipped with complete blood testing, computed tomography and nucleic acid devices and used traditional Chinese medicine and 5G remote diagnosis technologies, as well as medical robots, to support treatment.
It also organized national expert teams to offer psychological counseling for patients and held activities to keep patients entertained, Wan said, adding these management measures achieved good results and were quickly adopted by other mobile hospitals.
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