A new report from The King’s Fund has warned that plans to cut hospital beds in some areas are undesirable and unachievable.
New analysis for the report finds that the total number of NHS hospital beds in England has more than halved over the last 30 years, from around 299,000 to 142,000, as more patients with mental illness and learning disabilities are cared for in the community and medical advances have reduced the time many patients spend in hospital. Although it finds that most advanced nations have reduced hospital bed numbers in recent years, the report shows that the NHS now has fewer acute hospital beds per person than almost any other comparable health system.
As the NHS braces itself for a difficult winter, the analysis highlights a growing shortage of beds as hospitals struggle to cope with increasing numbers of patients with more complex conditions. In 2016/17, overnight occupancy in acute hospitals averaged over 90% and regularly exceeded 95% during the winter, well above the level widely thought to be safe.
Despite clear evidence that hospitals are overstretched, the report finds that in some parts of the country, sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) have put forward significant cuts in hospital beds, in some cases proposing faster reductions than the national trend in recent years. The authors conclude that the scale of bed reductions proposed in these areas is unrealistic.
The report suggests that there are still some opportunities to make better use of existing beds, especially by focusing on older patients who stay in hospital for long periods of time, and highlights promising signs that ‘vanguard’ areas trialling new ways of delivering care have made some progress in slowing the rise in emergency hospital admissions. In the long term this may help contain future increases in hospital bed use from a growing and ageing population.
Helen McKenna, senior policy adviser at The King’s Fund, said: “Over the years, medical advances and policies to care for more patients in the community have enabled hospitals to treat more patients using fewer beds. This has improved care for patients and resulted in significant reductions in the number of hospital beds.
“There are opportunities to make better use of existing beds and initiatives to capitalise on these should continue. But with many hospitals already stretched to breaking point, reductions on the scale we know have been proposed in some areas are neither desirable nor achievable. We welcome new requirements introduced by NHS England that local areas must meet before significant numbers of beds are closed.”
