Lessons from the Pandemic Hospital Design and Planning for Infection Prevention and Control

In April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across Europe and the globe, several EuHPN members came together to examine the response of hospitals in Europe and beyond.  A series of five webinars, titled Reorganise, Relocate, Repurpose, was organised through 2020 and early 2021, to examine case studies that could shed light on what measures were successful, or unsuccessful, in combating the spread of SARS-Cov-2, and what features of the hospital sector response might be of lasting value – for COVID-19, or for future pandemics of infectious disease.

The webinars and accompanying materials (slides, papers, recordings, images) were archived in a purpose-built website, and an initial analysis of the documentation resulted in a field guide which focused on four themes: Space, Staff, Systems, and Supply chains. 

Each of these has a link to issues of infection prevention and control (IPC) and, as part of a UK government-commissioned project in 2022, EuHPN produced a further narrative report on the webinar series' findings.  This is now available HERE