How many beds are there in the NHS?
“We don’t know. Sorry” [MyHSN Ed]
“What do you mean you ‘don’t know’?”
“Well we don’t, do you know?”
“No!! That’s why I’m asking .. its not good enough (we said we were sorry) .. grhhh!”
OK OK. What do we know? It was about 135,000 beds in the NHS, in 2021. But the short answer is that is an estimate and, well, we don’t know.
The actual number of beds in the NHS will be higher as this doesn’t include critical care beds, surgical day beds, or beds in private hospitals being used temporarily.
Also hospitals open and close beds all the time, associated with local pressures and events (e.g. closed for infection control reasons).
So most hospitals do not know their exact number of beds.
The number of available beds in England has approximately halved over the past 30 years. Proportionally, the largest falls have been in beds for people with learning disability, people with mental illness and long-term beds for older people.
Medical advances that mean patients don’t have to stay in hospital for as long, and a shift in policy towards home care, have contributed to the reduction in bed numbers.
Summary
The answer to the question of ‘how many beds are there in the NHS?’ is we don’t know for certain – around 135k. The trend is for less beds, and more home care.
Other resource
This is more information on the King’s Fund website.
