Hospital tents as temporary buffers

Gan Kim Yong: ‘the tent used for the Admission Transit Area Extension at Changi General Hospital is part of the “buffer capacity” to respond to unexpected surges in demand. It was built in June last year.’
 
Well, in many services there is this occasional need for additional facilities when there is a surge in demand. Restaurants could put up side tables in any space available when needed. Our housing crisis over the last decade was due to the lack of tents to accommodate the influx of a million foreigners. The MND should learn from MOH to built tents as buffer capacity when the next population surge arises when they did not see it coming.
 
It is understandable that such buffer capacity wouldl be needed when there is an epidemic like the Sars crisis. Just wondering why there is a need to cater for a surge during the end of the year holiday season? If this is a seasonal thing, there must be better ways to cope with such demands and the number of additional beds could be fairly predictable after years of repeated demands.
 
When such buffer capacities have to be activated in a non crisis state or when there is no outbreak of a contagious disease, does it not say that our hospital capacities are already fully loaded or insufficient? One can imagine what the needs for beds would be like when there is a major outbreak like the SARS. The only good thing about this shortage is that it will be quite similar to the housing shortage and the huge demand could be translated to good profits with higher ward charges. Or maybe not since the ward charges cannot be subject to market forces and market pricing mechanism of supply and demand.
 
Incidentally, would patients housed in such temporary tents be charged the same rate as those in the normal wards? Oh, are these ‘Admission Transit Area Extension’ going to be a permanent temporary fixture of hospitals?