Disease Outbreak Surge Response: How a Singapore Tertiary Hospital converted a multi-storey carpark into a Flu Screening Area to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thangayah, Jeevan Raaj; Tan, Kenneth Boon Kiat; Lim, Chin Siah; Fua, Tzay-Ping

COVID-19, first documented in December 2019, was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 30th January 20201. The disease, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, has affected more than 9 million people and contributed to at least 490,000 deaths globally as of June 2020, with numbers on the rise2.Increased numbers of patients seeking medical attention during disease outbreaks can overwhelm healthcare facilities, hence requiring an equivalent response from healthcare services. Surge capacity is a concept that has not only been defined as the "ability to respond to a sudden increase in patient care demands3" but also to "effectively and rapidly expand capacity4".This narrative review discusses how Singapore's largest tertiary hospital has encapsulated the elements of surge capability and transformed a peacetime multi-storey carpark into a flu screening area in response to the COVID-19 disease outbreak.