From Malaysia S Largest Convention Centre To Hospital In Four Days

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(twentytwo13) – Four days. This is what it took to convert Malaysia’s largest exhibition and convention centre into a temporary hospital to house Covid-19 patients.
This happened at Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) in anticipation of a third wave of cases.
Two halls in MAEPS – Hall A (9,600 sq m) and Hall C (3,600 sq m) have been turned into a quarantine and treatment centre to treat Covid-19 patients with light symptoms or those who are asymptomatic.
Those familiar with event management will agree turning a convention centre into a temporary hospital within four days is a remarkable feat.
What is even more amazing is this was achieved during the Movement Control Order where roads, shops and businesses were shut and people were grounded at home.
MAEPS chief operating officer Norafizah Rahman said her team will remember this achievement for a long time.
“We are used to setting up events in these halls. From automotive shows to travel exhibitions to concerts, we have seen it all. But we never imagined that we would one day ‘build’ a hospital and that too within four days,” she told Twentytwo13.
It all began on March 24 when she received a phone call from the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).
“They wanted to conduct a site visit at 3pm the same day to look at the possibility of building a temporary hospital.
“I was at home. Many of my staff members were also working from home. Luckily we had a skeletal crew at MAEPS who guided the Nadma officers, showing them the facilities available,” Norafizah said.
By 8pm that day, she was told a steering committee meeting would be held the next day and it would involve representatives from Nadma, Health Ministry, Armed Forces, Civil Defence Department, Works Ministry and MAEPS.
“Wednesday arrived and we were told the Prime Minister had decided to turn MAEPS into a temporary hospital. We saw China building a hospital from scratch within 10 days but how do you convert a convention centre into a hospital?
“Later we studied some pictures from China and the US on how beds were arranged in buildings for Covid-19 patients and that immediately gave us a better perspective.”
But Norafizah felt merely placing beds in an open space would mean patients would not have their privacy and she quickly mooted the idea of placing these beds in cubicles instead.
With a clearer picture of how the facility should look like, it was all systems go for the staff at MAEPS and by Thursday night the floor plan for Hall A and C was complete.
But while the mechanism had been put in place, the bigger headache now was to secure the required items for the facility.
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