Sue Dunlevy: Chinese coronavirus hospitals mask bigger issue at play

China’s ability to construct a hospital from the ground up in mere days may seem like an impressive feat, but this curiosity distracts from the real issue of the coronavirus crisis, writes Sue Dunlevy.

There is not much that is attractive about authoritarian regimes, but its hard not to be impressed by China’s ability to build two 1,000 bed hospitals in a matter of weeks in the midst of a major health pandemic.

The images of hundreds of earth movers clearing the sites, of massive amounts of concrete being laid and enormous cranes moving prefabricated building material into place is riveting.

Back here in Australia it takes two years or longer to get much smaller hospitals built. There are months of wrangling, getting planning approvals and checking that building and hospital safety standards are met. These are all very necessary hindrances, but they add time to construction.

Finding the manpower and skill set to get the job done here are other issues.

And despite the lengthy building programs often when new hospitals open here they don’t function well anyway – just consider the experience of the crisis ridden Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney.

As of Wednesday China has more infections of the new coronavirus than it did in with SARS. Picture: Chinatopix/AP

In a one party state like China if the government wants something built fast it can clear away bureaucratic hurdles, assign the manpower needed and get the job done.

This is a country which can build a 57 storey apartment block in just 19 days. It is also the place where you can find the bizarre spectacle of dozens of ghost cities with apartment towers, sports stadiums and architecturally beautiful public buildings ready to hold millions of industrial workers that never arrived because local industry never got off the ground. It’s evidence that the maxim “build it and they will come” is not always true and proof that sometimes planning ahead can get out of control.

Putting these buildings up in record time is one thing, keeping them standing is another. There have been numerous instances of apartment blocks in China collapsing killing people.

Construction workers have been working around the clock to construct a temporary field hospital in Wuhan. Picture: Chinatopix/AP

While we can see the outside of these fast-track hospitals we don't know what they look like inside, we can’t tell whether the facilities will be up to the job and whether the care provided in them will be adequate.

The miracle build also distracts us from other problems with the Chinese system laid bare by the coronavirus. The reason they are building these hospitals so fast is the existing health system is struggling to cope with the pressure created by a rampant virus for which there is currently no treatment and no vaccine.

Hospital corridors are crammed, sick people are being turned away and there are not enough resources to test any but the sickest of patients for the illness. There are even bizarre stories about doctors resorting to adult nappies because there are so many patients they don’t have time to go to the toilet.

The chaos in the health system in Wuhan is making it hard to get a true picture of just how infectious the virus is.

In a regime that controls the media, that is riddled with corruption and in which there is a culture of telling superiors what they want to hear, it’s possible that the opportunity to head off this outbreak at an earlier stage was missed.

Sue Dunlevy is a national health correspondent.

Originally published as Sue Dunlevy: Chinese coronavirus hospitals mask bigger issue at play