Medical container – features and possible applications

Containers are not just metal boxes used for transportation, but something much bigger. They come in handy especially if health and life saving is involved.

Access to health care has always been an important issue for people around the world. Whether it is the immediate response to a sudden influx of patients in the event of a natural disaster, epidemic or other accident. It is containers that very often provide medical care. Especially in critical situations that challenge health care.

Complete medical facilities

One trend that has emerged in recent years – and even more recently in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – is the conversion of shipping containers into mobile medical facilities. Constructed from modular shipping containers, the structures can be equipped with the necessary medical accessories and equipment. It is tailored to specific situations. Such a unit is used for rescue operations in areas affected by natural disasters. They are useful in armed conflict zones, but also serve temporarily on a construction site. They are indispensable during festivals or fairs. In addition, medical containers are used to build more complex complexes such as field hospitals or health centers. Thanks to shipping containers, their adaptability and modularity, complete medical facilities can be organized in no time.

Medical container – equipment

What a medical container is armed with depends largely on its purpose. A unit that will serve a three-day music festival will be stocked with completely different equipment than a veterinary office. A mobile swabbing, or vaccination station, recently popular in our country and around the world, will be equipped even differently.

Medical containers can be designed in many ways. Standard features of most of them include insulation, electrical system, windows, doors, ventilation system, shelving and racks, plumbing, stainless steel fittings, professional lighting, flooring, and a number of specialized equipment that is important in creating a strictly specific type of medical container.

Where help is hard to come by, the medical container is proving to be a lifesaver

Undoubtedly, the biggest advantage with mobile medical units is their mobility. It sounds trivial, but it is this feature that plays first fiddle when it comes to the functionality of medical containers. They have been delivered to Third World countries for many years. It is there that they save thousands of human lives. This was the case in the ebola epidemic in Africa or after the earthquake in Haiti. Of course, these are just examples, of which there are hundreds. Keep in mind that the cost of converting a container into a clinic is a fraction of the cost of constructing a traditional building. This makes it possible to offer more than just basic health care to patients in poor, isolated communities. The containers allow for a range of medical examinations and diagnoses by health care professionals.

By creating relatively inexpensive, portable and modular units and placing them in areas that need it most, medical care can be provided. And that’s how a simple shipping container, often recycled to the accompaniment of health workers, can bring help where it is needed.