National Health Service: Hospital Beds

Lord Turnberg Excerpts

Wednesday 11th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

Quite a bit of the technology has enabled day case rates to rise dramatically. Day cases now account for 80% of all in-patient episodes. For example, comparative data suggest that our rates for day case cataract surgery are among the highest at nearly 98%.

[Lord Turnberg (Lab)]

My Lords, is the noble Earl aware that we have one of the highest rates of bed occupancy in the EU, approaching 90%, and yet we have the lowest average length of stay? All this makes it extremely difficult to think about reducing bed numbers still further.

[Earl Howe]

In fact, average annual bed occupancy rates have been stable at around 84% to 87% since 2000. Of course, that rate goes up and down. We know that winter sees greater pressure on bed occupancy, but the NHS has long experience in managing peaks in demand, particularly over the winter. We do not set optimum bed occupancy requirements on the NHS. As the noble Lord knows well, that is a matter for the local NHS to manage.