Spatial Adaptation for Alternative Care Facilities during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Siting Field Hospitals for Abu Dhabi City

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems around the world have had their limited surge capacity rapidly overwhelmed. In such a situation, pandemic risk reduction necessitates the employment of one or more alternative care sites (ACSs). This paper aims to investigate the siting of deployable field hospitals to reduce pandemic risk and support the staff involved in direct patient care. The present study used multiple case studies of space conversions and field hospitals in several countries. Informed by the existing literature, these cases shed light on their healthcare system responses to COVID-19 and allowed for a comparative analysis. Based on the case studies, the authors propose two ACSs in Abu Dhabi City: one in an urban setting and another in a suburban area. The authors identified expansive spaces and adaptable buildings according to a set of primary criteria, including the required level of structural alterations, budget, and time. The selected sites/buildings could be transformed into field hospitals to respond to the pandemic and/or disaster risk reduction whilst boosting critical care surge capacity. Devising such measures in siting field hospitals as ACSs would eventually enable Abu Dhabi's (and the United Arab Emirates') healthcare system and institutions to become more resilient in adequately responding to unprecedented demand and/or sudden disruptions to healthcare operations in the future.