Readers may remember the first transformation of an exhibition centre into a temporary hospital to aid the fight against Covid-19, outside China, was Reed Exhibitions turning over its Messe Vienna venue into a 800-bed field hospital in just three days in March.
In the weeks since, venues requisitioned to join the fight have included New York’s Javits Centre, IFEMA Madrid and ExCel London.
“On Friday, 13 March, we were approached by representatives of the City of Vienna, who were desperately struggling with the question of how to provide medical care if demand exceeded capacity at Vienna’s hospitals,” explains Oliver-John Perry, Director of Marketing & Communications at Messe Vienna. “They wanted to create an extra 3,100 beds for patients with minor Covid-19-related issues, thus saving hospital beds for the more serious cases.”
With 75,000 sqm of space, a central location and easy access, the Viennese halls were an obvious choice. Reed Exhibitions Austria’s CEO Benedikt Binder-Krieglstein’s team got straight to work planning a hyper-fast build.
“Originally the emergency services in charge were planning on using their own builders and catering service, but they quickly discovered that we and our venue partners had all they needed right on site,” explains Perry. “Our stand building company STANDout was able to supply and install all the partition walls and technical appliances and our catering partner Gerstner is preparing all the meals needed in their on-site kitchens.”
“Because all the equipment and materials were close at hand, we were able to set up the first 880 cubicles in just three days, with the city donating the hospital beds,” adds Perry. “We could even cater for meeting and briefing rooms for the medical staff and emergency services on site.”
Today, all 3,100 beds are ready and waiting to receive Covid-19 patients, should they be needed.
Reed Exhibitions Austria’s video of the hospital build has since had nearly 5,000 hits on YouTube.
Photo credit: C. Jobst / PID and outdoor photo from Messe Wien is courtesy ‘Reed Exhibitions/Faber’
