Resilience in Healthcare Design
The plight of
our healthcare infrastructure has been highlighted as never before by the COVID-19
pandemic. The surge of affected patients, insufficiency of patient beds,
understaffed hospitals and shortage of medical equipment are only some of the
concerns of the medical fraternity. Various critical shortcomings have been
identified in the design of our hospitals, which have failed to provide enough
space for the rising number of cases and reduce the possibilities of
cross-infection. This has led to an increased need for healthcare facilities
that neither open wards nor more flexible capacity can address, making it
essential to re-evaluate and reimagine our clinical environments.
The present
situation can be seen as an opportunity to reinvigorate healthcare systems
across the country. In this article, Mitu Mathur,
Director, GPM Architects & Planners, discusses some of the design considerations that can be
adopted to achieve this.