HC Deb 18 September 2003 vol 410 c975W
Mr. Burns

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the average bed occupancy rate, as a percentage, for each NHS hospital trust in England from April 2001 to April 2003. [127496]

Mr. Hutton

Data on average bed occupancy rates are available on an annual basis, at national health service trust level and for England, for the years 2000–01 to 2001–02 on the Department of Health's website at: www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/data_requests/beds_open_overnight.htm

Data for 2002–03 are not yet available.

The latest available statistics for 2001–02 show that the number of general and acute beds increased by over 1,500 to 136,583 over the previous two years. This represents over two thirds of the target set out in the NHS Plan.