Shanghai is considering building five hospitals to cope with future public health emergencies, Shen Boyong, a Shanghai political adviser and deputy director of Ruijin Hospital, revealed during this year's Shanghai Two Sessions.

The 1st session of the 14th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Shanghai Committee opened on Tuesday and the 1st session of the 16th Shanghai People's Congress (SPC) will open on Wednesday. The CPPCC session will close on Saturday, with the SPC session ending on Sunday.

"With the current outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai, more patients are visiting emergency departments, causing a shortage of hospital beds. Answering the urgent call, local medical institutes have temporarily turned spaces for non-respiratory and non-critical diseases to COVID-19 patients. This has made us ponder over the issue.

"Currently, Shanghai is considering building five 'combat readiness' hospitals in east, west, south, north and central parts. Ruijin Hospital will be responsible for the north and central hospitals. The north one will be located in the Phase Two of Ruijin Hospital North Branch and the central one will be placed inside the Ruijin Hospital emergency medical center in Huangpu District."

The underground spaces of the north and central hospitals, for example, will serve as parking lots on ordinary days, whereas upon an outbreak of a public health emergency, they will be cleared within a day to accommodate patients. Each such facility is slated to make way for 200 beds in the shortest possible time, to cope with a public health emergency, explained Shen, who also emphasized talent training.

"The top infectious disease departments in Shanghai are in the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Huashan Hospital and Ruijin Hospital, among others. From now on, we will train more professionals in this field and put more efforts on improving the city's infectious disease departments."