An aerial view of the floating hospital trialed in a medical exercise held in Shanghai on Sunday Photo: courtesy of the Shanghai East Hospital

A temporary tent hospital to be deployed on water made its debut in an emergency medical exercise in Shanghai on Sunday. The facility consists of a floating platform and two detachable medical tents, and is equipped with an intensive care unit and wards with negative air pressure.

The floating platform can withstand level-15 typhoons, Shanghai Morning Post reported. The construction of the whole facility can be completed in approximately three hours.

It is an initial design of a new floating hospital project led by the Shanghai East Hospital. The design will see further improvement in functions as the project goes on, Liu Zhongmin, director of the hospital's national rescue team, said at the project's launch ceremony on Sunday.

The floating hospital is designed to be used for complicated water rescue operations, especially urban waterlogging situations, rescue operations in narrow river channels and waters with varying heights. It can also move on rivers, lakes, seas and other natural water fields.

The rescue boat plays a limited role in certain situations, especially in urban water flood rescue operations, due to its large weight and high requirements for waters, Liu explained. Therefore, a hospital that combines high flexibility and safety is urgently needed to meet the demand for medical aid on the water.

Engineers, material and medical researchers have been involved in the project to make the hospital simple to be transport and assemble, and ensure the hospital can function in a safe and flexible way.