Makeshift hospitals improving
Patients get treatment, necessities at Fang Cang
While some netizens turned a blind eye to China’s efforts to treat patients infected with novel coronavirus pneumonia and depicted newly established Fang Cang makeshift hospitals as “concentration camps,” patients staying at the hospitals said things are getting better day by day and people should have confidence in overcoming the difficult time.
Li Tian, a 43-year-old single mother, had a regrettable Spring Festival holiday this year. Including her, the whole family has been infected with the highly contagious virus. On February 5, her mother passed away, leaving her father, her 15-year-old son and herself in pain and sorrow.
At the hospital, there are some posters saying, “confidence is more important than gold,” and doctors as well as nurses in protective suits have been busy day and night, according to some video clips and photos Li shared with the Global Times.
According to her description, each hospital section, with fewer than 50 patients, is staffed by four doctors and two nurses. If doctors do not check on patients, patients can find them at the hospital’s consulting and service desks.
Photos show some patients lying in the bed wearing masks while others line up for the bathroom.
Everything appeared to be in order. And in the corner of the room, some books have been placed on a bookshelf for patients to read.
“We come here to fight the disease, not to enjoy life,” Li said, commenting on some online criticism about disappointing living condition in the hospital. “I’m reading Scream written by Lu Xun, trying to find positive energy and cheer myself up,” she said.
A Wuhan resident surnamed Zhao told the Global Times that her mother was admitted to another Fang Cang makeshift hospital in Wuchang district on February 5. “Conditions were not good the first day she moved in; there was no one to clean the toilet or to serve food,” said Zhao. But conditions improved the next day.s
Zhao said her mother eats better than most people outside, as the hospital serves patients shrimp, steak and fish, but many people outside are quite thrifty about food as the lockdown has limited food supplies.
Talking about the criticism of Fang Cang, Zhao said that “They should understand that the government is stepping up its efforts to contain the virus and is trying to hospitalize all patients. Not to mention that we have the whole country’s support.”
Another patient who only gave her name as Guo Guo told the Global Times that the nurses and doctors sometimes organize patients to do exercises, including dancing and practicing tai chi to “keep a joyful body and mind, and to enhance their immunity system.”
Radio broadcast is also available to patients to enrich their lives, said Guo Guo. “I really appreciate those medical workers’ work, they made every patient feel part of a big family here,” she said.