§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital beds in NHS hospitals there were in each year since 1979; and if he will make a statement. [151522]
§ Mr. Denham:[holding answer 27 February 2001]: The average daily number of available beds in wards open overnight (ie 24 hours) in National Health Service hospitals in England in each year since 1979 is given in the table.
Year Total Number of available beds 1979 361,670 1980 355,978 1981 351,669 1982 348,104 1983 343,091 1984 334,513 1985 325,487 1986 315,715 1987–88 297,341 1988–89 282,895 1989–90 270,309 1990–91 255,479 1991–92 242,677 1992–93 232,201 1993–94 219,476 1994–95 211,812 1995–96 206,136 1996–97 198,848 1997–98 193,625 1998–99 190,006 Source:
SH3/KHO3 Department of Health.
Information on the numbers of available beds in NHS hospitals is published annually in "Bed Availability and Occupancy—England", which is in the Library. The latest published figures are for the financial year 1999–2000.
The number of available beds in NHS hospitals has been declining for the past 40 years. However, a special bed census, set up to inform the winter planning process, counted the number of available general and acute and critical care beds on 1 December 1999 and 1 December 2000. A table showing the number of beds in these categories is available in the Library. These figures show an increase of 1,788 in the number of general and acute beds, in the year to December 2000, which indicates that the downward trend in bed numbers in these categories has started to be reversed. As a result of the NHS plan, there will be an extra 7,000 beds, including 2,100 general and acute beds and 5,000 intermediate care beds, by 2003–04.