Hospital Beds
(asked on 4th September 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on patient safety of exceeding the average bed occupancy rate recommended by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
The Department does not set a target occupancy rate, but official statistics show that the bed occupancy rate has remained stable, between 84% and 89% (all beds) since 2000.
National Health Service hospitals need to manage beds effectively in order to cope with peaks in demand. Occupancy rates are higher in winter, when demands are at their greatest. Bed availability fluctuates, but the NHS has practice and experience in managing capacity to cope with both routine and emergency care. It is the responsibility of individual hospitals to manage the day-to-day running of their organisations, considering issues such as patient flow and throughput, safety and infections.
NHS England publishes quarterly information on the numbers of available and occupied beds open overnight or day only in NHS organisations, most recently for quarter 1 of 2017/18.
National time series of these data are available at:
and