The sustainbale Impact of COVID19 pandemic on the design of the hospital fa cility, a qualitative study comparing two healthcare systems in UK and Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitals in the United Kingdom and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in terms of design. The COVID-19 based pandemic is known to have created many challenges for health care facilities in the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as many other health care facilities around the world due to an increase in patients needing care and hospital limitations. Incorporating evidence from both academic publications, mainstream publications and interviews with health care professionals from both the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this study finds that hospitals faced challenges in many areas of hospital design that impacted the ability to care for patients, including but not limited to the number of beds available, limited spaces available for patients within the hospital, and limited rooms available to offer COVID-19 specific treatment. The research finds that despite these challenges, many practices were used to help address the shortcomings and limitations that became evident for health care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper argues for the use of best practices for hospitals to adopt to better prepare for future pandemics.