I'm having trouble on the 6th level, Festering-on-the-Wold - the one that introduces Epidemics. The epidemics seem to come thick and fast, and I don't have a chance to deal with them. Occasionally, I'll relent and declare an epidemic - lose 5000+ funds, only for a 36,000 one to occur immediately after., which I've got no hope of dealing with - especially (as is often the case)if the inspector is called soon after I've even been alerted.

I am struggling to maintain a balance anywhere near the target 150,000 prerequisite for beating the level, and I've spent a few hours on the level already.

I've read up on the causes, namely, overcrowding, and have attempted to spread out the waiting areas a bit. I've also read about one trick - sending them home before the inspector gets there - this one worked out pretty well when I tried it.

My question is, are epidemics as buffed in the following levels - are they going to occur as frequently, and I'm going to have to think harder about my hospital plan?

Attached is a screenshot of my entrance area. The second pharmacy was built to try and help lighten the load when the epidemics would inevitably hit, and I have a few nurses milling about ready to vac the patients (although I rarely get the chance before the inspector is prematurely called). I'm also very proactive in cleaning up litter - I have an army of handymen, and since the last level, where the handymen were perpetually on the brink of quitting because they were constantly cleaning up puke, I play on speed 2, so I can micromanage all the staff.

Have you read this thread? There are plenty of hints how to deal with epidemics effectively.

I had looked up some posts on GOG prior to my original post, although there is some new information for me in that thread, so I'll be sure to study it well.

I would like to know whether the epidemics will be seemingly as intense in later levels, although to be fair, it might just come down to poor hospital design. I can't wait to finish the level, and put some of the advice in to action - it's either that or bulldoze most of my hospital...

Just to add to that: the 'cheap' epidemics are usually fine to treat yourself, as only a few people are infected to begin with. The expensive ones can be a real pain, and especially the ones where you happen to require surgery. As long as you have a good supply of nurses and a well-built hospital, epidemics tend to not be a massive problem.

I finally managed it - I as no longer getting epidemics with a large penalties, and in most cases, I was given the full time allowance before the inspector was summoned.

I did find the nurses were absolutely useless in innoculating the patients when I needed them to, but the game seemed to be going easy on me, with only 2 infected at maximum at any one time.

I attached a few screenshots - the game was cheeky enough to throw another epidemic at me, in the last moments, and my nurses were unwilling to innoculate the patient, but I was well clear of the target by that point anyway - especially with all the bonuses I achieved at the end of the year (see awards.png). Also nice to see myself at the top of the hall of fame for the first time in the campaign, although jusging by my visitor and cure count, I wasn't the best hospital...

The epidemics start to become even a larger problem later on once you have massive hospitals and a huge number of patients.

Just to give you heads up for later on:
1. You will want the corridors to be wide in order for patients not to touch each other.
2. Once you have more cash you may want to redesign your waiting areas so that patients are not sitting in the corridors but in areas of a corridor (proper waiting areas).
3. You will need a large number of GPs and nurses just to deal with patients fast enough.
4. You will want to build several clusters of GP, Pharmacies and diagnosis where in each cluster these are very close to each other so you can treat patients swiftly.
5. You need to have army of handymen solely sweeping floors.

I was in one of the stages towards the end of the game and epidemics just destroyed me even though I had never major issues with the earlier on or in my previous playthroughs. Indeed, I always treated epidemics as an additional source of cash. But here I was approaching 700,000 on my account with high reputation (>850), running 6 GP offices, several pharmacies and still the queues started to grow and I had hundreds of patients. This lead to a series of massive epidemics that wiped me out... I had epidemics with fines of 50,000-60,000... one after the other... My hospital being evacuated just to have another massive epidemics. That was just crazy... But then I followed these guideline and managed to avoid any major epidemic.

I know this is cheating, but I got fed up with viruses. When one hits, save your game, exit to the menu, and then continue the game. The virus will no longer be active.

The first level that had epidemics only made me rich and i never did have as many epidemics in the latter level.
I just don't place seating one next to another i preffer putting one seating then free 1 cube or space which usually has a heater or a drinking machine or something else and then another seating.I only had 1,2, maxium of 4 people with epidemic infection.
I do hate the idea if they walk outside the hospital that the inspector rushes to the hospital then,so better keep em in closed hospital if you wanna vacinate,cure them.Also it would be good to get rid of rats either shoot em or place a bench where they have a hole,move bench to other hole.
Anyway now starting the level Manquay.