Preparedness of Hospitals Post COVID-19 Era

COVID-19 is an unprecedented global crisis, but epidemics have increased in both frequency and reach due to globalisation, greater connectivity, and denser cities. The pace at which healthcare systems were able to respond and the transformation scale are incredible achievements. But they also serve to highlight how ill-equipped the world was for a pandemic of this kind. COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on systems and processes that had been fine-tuned over many decades, revealing flaws and vulnerabilities that we had overlooked, as well as glaring blind spots in our forecasting. During the outbreak of the current COVID-19 pandemic, there were several problems faced by healthcare providers worldwide. A few of these were the shortage of spaces to handle the patient surge, availability of advanced equipment, overburdened doctors and paramedical staff, quality of services, and awareness about disease prevention. It is believed that the world may have to live with such viruses indefinitely. There is a need for shifting, changing, and altering the design and construction of hospitals to tackle such pandemics. Future hospitals should have more flexibility and adaptability to handle pandemics and other outlier events that enable rapid preparedness of staff, facilities, and processes to manage an unprecedented influx of patients. In this article, we are trying to answer some of the biggest questions faced by experts: "what shall be the design of future healthcare institutions which are capable enough to handle such pandemics? What lessons can be learnt for the future design of hospitals, as well as other healthcare buildings? Do we need to adapt and refurbish preparing for a second, third or fourth wave of infections? What will the long-term impact be on building typologies and layouts, strategic planning and investment?" We discuss the following major issues and suggest themes that could affect the design of such institutions and clinical services delivered by them.