§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many (a) occupied and (b) unoccupied hospital beds there are in each of the regions of Great Britain.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe requested information is given in the table for regional health authorities in England. A variety of reasons may lead to some beds being unoccupied. These include the need to have beds available for emergencies, unexpectedly early discharges which leave a bed available until the next day and unpredictable admissions (for example, in maternity cases).
The health services information steering group recommended in its first report that bed use data should include all patients using a ward in a 24-hour period and that aggregated bed occupancy statistics should not be used as an indicator of efficient bed use. A more useful measure of bed utilisation is patient throughput per available bed. For instance, in 1985 19.5 in-patient cases were treated per available bed compared with 15.00 in 1979.
Statistics for the rest of Great Britain are a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
National Health Service hospitals in England, 1985 Regional/Special Health Authority Average daily number of occupied beds1 Average daily number of available beds not occupied1 Northern 18,900 4,873 Yorkshire 21,061 5,732 Trent 23,075 6,316 East Anglian 9,912 2,622 North West Thames 19,756 4,060 North East Thames 22,734 4,120 South East Thames 19,897 4,400 South West Thames 18,820 3,390 Wessex 14,099 3,555 Oxford 9,984 2,571 South Western 17,605 4,327 West Midlands 26,673 6,435 Mersey 15,465 2,999 North Western 23,630 5,391 Special Health Authorities 2,351 735 England Total 263,962 61,526 1 Bed occupancy figures are based on a midnight count and do not therefore reflect the use of beds by patients who do not stay overnight.