The number of hospital beds in the United Kingdom has undergone a decline since the year 2000. Whereas in 2000, there were around 240 thousand beds in the UK, by 2023 this figure was approximately 166 thousand. This means over this period, there were around 74 thousand fewer hospital beds in the UK. However, since 2020, the number of hospital beds has been increasing, the first time in the recorded time period. Fewer beds but admissions are still high There were almost 18.5 million admissions to hospital between April 2024 to March 2025 in England. The number of admissions has recovered since the drop in year 2020/21. The busiest hospital trust in England by admissions in the year 2024/25 was the University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust with over 391.5 thousand admissions. The average length of stay in hospitals in the UK in 2022 for acute care was nearly eight days. Accident and Emergency In the second quarter of 2024/5, A&E in England received around 6.7 million attendees. The number of attendances has been creeping upwards since 2012. Around 4 percent of people attending A&E in the last year were diagnosed with either an upper or lower respiratory tract infection, the most common diagnosis.

This data covers a time period during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has affected NHS services. During the pandemic, hospital services in Wales were reorganised due to enhanced infection prevention and control measures, and the need to treat COVID and non-COVID patients separately. Subsequently, planned operations were significantly reduced and non-urgent emergency admissions decreased. As a result, hospitals experienced lower occupancy rates in 2020-21 than in previous years. This table presents summary information, from the QueSt1 return, provided by the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS), on bed use in Wales. Data presented in this statistical release are an annual average and illustrate yearly changing occupancy rates and bed availability. Therefore, these data won’t reflect changing levels of activity throughout the year. The data do not present data on average length of stay, turnover interval and bed use factor. These indicators are calculated using data on deaths and discharges which is no longer collected via the QS1 return, and need to be derived from the Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) for 2012-13 onwards. When carrying out more detailed analysis of the deaths and discharges data from PEDW in preparation for the 2012-13 release, data quality issues arose in relation to assessment unit (AU) activity reporting in QS1 and in PEDW and how this should be treated in the data. It was identified that there is inconsistency in the reporting of assessment units, with some LHBs reporting AU activity within their beds data, and others omitting them. This inconsistency in the reporting of AU activity is also likely to affect historic data. Please find information on changes to the data published on NHS beds, as per the given weblink.

Description

The purpose of this initiative is to build an integrated dataset on Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and their availability by country and region (at the highest regional granularity provided by the sources), using a data model standardized across countries.

Currently, ICU data is stored in different country-specific sources, with a wide range of access points (national websites, APIs, excel or csv files, etc.)

Given current COVID-19 crisis, we believe that this information should be provided with the following: * common standardized structure * single point of access * open to the public

We hope that these datasets will further benefit researchers and help us in the fight against COVID-19.

Countries and sources:

• Italy (as of 2019 - source: Ministero della Salute)
• United Kingdom
  • England (as of 2020 - source: NHS England)
  • Wales (as of 2019 - source: StatsWales)
  • Scotland (as of 1998, projected on 2020 whole figure - sources: Scottish Health Directorate & Herald Scotland)
  • Northern Ireland (as of 2020, w/o sub-area granularity - source: Derry Journal)
• US (as of 2018 - source: Harvard Global Health Institute)
• Spain (as of 2013 - source: Medicina Intensiva)
• Germany (updated daily, not complete - source DIVI Intensiv Register)

Monthly data on critical care bed use and cancelled urgent operations

Source agency: NHS England

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Critical care bed capacity and cancelled operations: monthly situation reports

This is a report on admitted patient care activity in English NHS hospitals and English NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2020. It contains final data and replaces the provisional data that are released each month. The data are taken from the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse. HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients at NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'Finished Consultant Episodes', and each episode relates to a period of care for a patient under a single consultant at a single hospital. Therefore this report counts the number of episodes of care for admitted patients rather than the number of patients. This publication shows the number of episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by patient's age, gender, diagnosis, procedure involved and by provider. Hospital Adult Critical Care (ACC) data are now included within this report, following the discontinuation of the 'Hospital Adult Critical Care Activity' publication. The ACC data tables are not a designated National Statistic and they remain separate from the APC data tables. The ACC data used in this publication draws on records submitted by providers as an attachment to the admitted patient care record. These data show the number of adult critical care records during the period, with a number of breakdowns including admission details, discharge details, patient demographics and clinical information. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This document will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. Supplementary analysis has been produced, by NHS Digital, containing experimental statistics using the Paediatric Critical Care Minimum Data Set (PCCMDS) data, collected by NHS Digital, against activity published in NHS Reference Costs. This analysis seeks to assist users of the data in understanding the data quality of reported paediatric critical care data. Also included within this release, is supplementary analysis that has been produced in addition to the Retrospective Review of Surgery for Urogynaecological Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence using Tape or Mesh: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Experimental Statistics, April 2008 - March 2017. It contains a count of Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs) where a procedure for urogynaecological prolapse or stress urinary incontinence using tape or mesh has been recorded during the April 2019 to March 2020 period.

This publication reports on Admitted Patient Care activity in England for the financial year 2023-24. This report includes but is not limited to analysis of hospital episodes by patient demographics, diagnoses, external causes/injuries, operations, bed days, admission method, time waited, specialty, provider level analysis and Adult Critical Care (ACC). It describes NHS Admitted Patient Care Activity, Adult Critical Care activity and performance in hospitals in England. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care and may also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. The data source for this publication is Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). It contains final data and replaces the provisional data that are released each month. HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances at NHS-commissioned hospital services in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'Finished Consultant Episodes', and each episode relates to a period of care for a patient under a single consultant at a single hospital. Therefore, this report counts the number of episodes of care for admitted patients rather than the number of patients. This publication shows the number of episodes during the period, with breakdowns including by patient's age, gender, diagnosis, procedure involved and by provider. Please send queries or feedback via email to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk. Author: Secondary Care Open Data and Publications, NHS England. Lead Analyst: Karl Eichler

The number of admissions has increased year-on-year from 2000 to 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital admission dropped in 2020/21. In 2024/25 there were around **** million admissions* to NHS hospitals in England, showing that admission numbers have reached and exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Of these, *** million were emergency admissions.

Wave-one transmission rate estimates use data captured during the first wave only, whereas wave-two uses rates were estimated using data captured from the whole epidemic (see main text for further details). The final interval ended on 31st December 2020.

During the financial year 2024/25, the busiest hospital provider in England was the ************************************************ with over *** thousand admissions. This trust encompasses four hospitals in the Birmingham area, one of the largest urban areas in England. The second-busiest trust this year was the ******************************************, with approximately *** thousand admissions. Accident and emergency admissionsIn the second quarter of 2024/25, there were around *** million accident and emergency (A&E) attendees in England (including at A&E departments not in hospitals). After the drop in A&E attendances during the COVID-pandemic, numbers have risen again to previous levels, with a trend towards an increasing number of individuals seeking emergency care. Around ****percent of A&E attendees in England in 2024/5 were first diagnosed with a lower respiratory infection. Furthermore, over**** percent were found to have ‘no abnormality detected’ which could be detrimental to a service that is already stretched. Waiting too longOver the last few years in the A&E department, the NHS has been falling behind the target that ** percent of patients should be seen within **** hours of arrival. The last time this target was reached was back in July 2015. Not just the A&E department, but other services also require lengthy waits. It is no wonder that the levels of satisfaction with the way the NHS runs is at an all-time low.

This data is taken from LG Inform (http://lginform.local.gov.uk Data Ref ID 27). It shows the delayed transfers of care, average weekly rate in Plymouth Delayed transfers of care, average weekly rate - Final available dataset: fin_2008_09 This indicator measures the impact of hospital services (acute and non-acute) and community-based care in facilitating timely and appropriate discharge from all hospitals for all adults. This measures the ability of the whole system to ensure appropriate discharge from hospital for the entire adult population, and is an indicator of the effectiveness of the interface between health and social care services. This indicator shows the average weekly rate of delayed transfers of care from all NHS hospitals, acute and non-acute, per 100,000 population aged 18+. A delayed transfer of care occurs when a patient is ready for transfer from a hospital bed, but is still occupying such a bed. This was previously reported as NI 131. Source name: Department of Health Collection name: Unify2 Data Collection - MSitDT Polarity: Low is good Polarity is how sentiment is measured "Sentiment is usually considered to have "poles" positive and negative these are often translated into "good" and "bad" sentiment analysis is considered useful to tell us what is good and bad in our information stream.

Virtual wards (also known as hospital at home) allow patients to get the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital. This includes either preventing avoidable hospital admissions or supporting people to safely leave hospital sooner. Systems are asked to continue to embed, standardise and scale virtual ward capacity, ensuring that local virtual ward services are aligned to local demand for both children and adults. This is outlined in the 2025/26 Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance and the Neighbourhood Health Guidelines 2025/26. This data is published on the NHS England website. Please follow the link below.

The rate of delayed transfers of care from all NHS hospitals per 100,000 population aged 18+. A delayed transfer of care occurs when a patient is ready for transfer from a hospital bed, but is still occupying such a bed. A patient is ready for transfer when: [a] a clinical decision has been made that the patient is ready for transfer AND; [b] a multi-disciplinary team decision has been made that the patient is ready for transfer AND; [c] the patient is safe to discharge/transfer. This therefore measures the ability of the whole system to ensure appropriate discharge for the whole population passing through hospital and is an indicator of the effectiveness of the interface between health and social care services.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is a database containing details of all admissions, A and E attendances and outpatient appointments at NHS hospitals in England. Adult Critical Care (ACC) is a subset of APC data. An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or High Dependency Unit (HDU) ward in a hospital, known as a critical care unit, provides support, monitoring and treatment for critically ill patients requiring constant support and monitoring to maintain function in at least one organ, and often in multiple organs. Medical equipment is used to take the place of patients’ organs during their recovery. Some critical care units are attached to condition-specific treatment units, such as heart, kidney, liver, breathing, circulation or nervous disorders. Others specialise in neonatal care (babies), paediatric care (children) or patients with severe injury or trauma. Initially this data is collected during a patient's time at hospital as part of the Commissioning Data Set (CDS). This is submitted to NHS Digital for processing and is returned to healthcare providers as the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data set and includes information relating to payment for activity undertaken. It allows hospitals to be paid for the care they deliver. This same data can also be processed and used for non-clinical purposes, such as research and planning health services. Because these uses are not to do with direct patient care, they are called 'secondary uses'. This is the HES data set. HES data covers all NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, including: private patients treated in NHS hospitals patients resident outside of England care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS Each HES record contains a wide range of information about an individual patient admitted to an NHS hospital, including: clinical information about diagnoses and operations patient information, such as age group, gender and ethnicity administrative information, such as dates and methods of admission and discharge geographical information such as where patients are treated and the area where they live We apply a strict statistical disclosure control in accordance with the NHS Digital protocol, to all published HES data. This suppresses small numbers to stop people identifying themselves and others, to ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is a database containing details of all admissions, A and E attendances and outpatient appointments at NHS hospitals in England.

Initially this data is collected during a patient's time at hospital as part of the Commissioning Data Set (CDS). This is submitted to NHS Digital for processing and is returned to healthcare providers as the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data set and includes information relating to payment for activity undertaken. It allows hospitals to be paid for the care they deliver.

This same data can also be processed and used for non-clinical purposes, such as research and planning health services. Because these uses are not to do with direct patient care, they are called 'secondary uses'. This is the HES data set.

HES data covers all NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, including:

• private patients treated in NHS hospitals
• patients resident outside of England
• care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS

Each HES record contains a wide range of information about an individual patient admitted to an NHS hospital, including:

• clinical information about diagnoses and operations
• patient information, such as age group, gender and ethnicity
• administrative information, such as dates and methods of admission and discharge
• geographical information such as where patients are treated and the area where they live

We apply a strict statistical disclosure control in accordance with the NHS Digital protocol, to all published HES data. This suppresses small numbers to stop people identifying themselves and others, to ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained.

Timescales for dissemination can be found under 'Our Service Levels' at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/data-access-request-service-dars/data-access-request-service-dars-process

Nearly 340,000 older people in England live in residential or nursing care homes. Older people living in care homes often have complex health problems which make them more likely to need hospital care in hospital if their health suddenly deteriorates. People living in care homes account for 185,000 emergency admissions to hospital each year and spend over 1.46 million days in hospital beds. Improving care for older patients living in care homes will directly benefit patients while reducing the demand for hospital beds and reduce the risk of hospital overcrowding.

A significant proportion of hospital admissions from care homes are unnecessary and could be avoided if their needs were addressed differently. The hospital environment and can be distressing for some older people living in care homes and the burden of transferring patients from their home to hospital can be significant. These factors have driven a search for alternative ways of providing better care.

This highly granular dataset of 128,000 admissions from care home provides a unique opportunity to understand reasons, pathways and outcomes from acute presentations to hospital.

PIONEER geography: The West Midlands (WM) has a population of 5.9 million & includes a diverse ethnic & socio-economic mix.

Electronic Heath Record. UHB is one of the largest NHS Trusts in England, providing direct acute services & specialist care across four hospital sites, with 2.2 million patient episodes per year, 2750 beds & an expanded 250 ITU bed capacity during COVID. UHB runs a fully electronic healthcare record (EHR) (PICS; Birmingham Systems), a shared primary & secondary care record (Your Care Connected) & a patient portal “My Health”.

Scope: Acute care episodes amongst patients aged over 65 from care homes. Longitudinal & individually linked, so that the preceding & subsequent health journey can be mapped & healthcare utilisation prior to & after admission understood. The dataset includes highly granular patient demographics, co-morbidities taken from ICD-10 & SNOMED-CT codes. Serial, structured data pertaining to process of care (timings, admissions, wards), presenting complaint, physiology readings (heart rate, BMI, blood pressure, respiratory rate, NEWS2 score, oxygen saturations and clinical frailty scale), Charlson comorbidity index, Lab analysis results(e.g. urea, albumin, platelets, white blood cells) microbiology results, procedures, outpatients admissions, oxygen delivery methods, drug administered and all outcomes. Linked images available (radiographs, CT scans, MRI).

Available supplementary data: Matched controls; ambulance, OMOP data, synthetic data.

Available supplementary support: Analytics, Model build, validation & refinement; A.I.; Data partner support for ETL (extract, transform & load) process, Clinical expertise, Patient & end-user access, Purchaser access, Regulatory requirements, Data-driven trials, “fast screen” services.

Improving outcomes for people with multiple long term conditions is a priority as set out in the NHS long term plan. ADMISSION is a Research Collaborative funded by UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health Research and Care Research that brings together scientists, clinicians and patients from five UK universities and hospitals (Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, University of Birmingham (PIONEER – the Health Data Research UK Acute Care Hub),  Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Dundeeand University College London) to transform understanding of multiple long-term conditions in hospital patients.

As part of this, PIONEER has curated a highly granular dataset of 119,815 unique hospitalised patients focusing on the impact of multiple long term conditions. The data includes admission details, demography, initial presentation, presenting symptoms, diagnoses, treatments, therapy, medications, imaging, wards, investigations, procedures, operations and outcomes. The current dataset includes admissions from 01-01-2000 to 07-02-2024 but can be expanded to assess other timelines of interest.

Geography: The West Midlands (WM) has a population of 6 million & includes a diverse ethnic & socio-economic mix. UHB is one of the largest NHS Trusts in England, providing direct acute services & specialist care across four hospital sites, with 2.2 million patient episodes per year, 2750 beds & > 120 ITU bed capacity. UHB runs a fully electronic healthcare record (EHR) (PICS; Birmingham Systems), a shared primary & secondary care record (Your Care Connected) & a patient portal “My Health”.

Data set availability: Data access is available via the PIONEER Hub for projects which will benefit the public or patients. This can be by developing a new understanding of disease, by providing insights into how to improve care, or by developing new models, tools, treatments, or care processes. Data access can be provided to NHS, academic, commercial, policy and third sector organisations. Applications from SMEs are welcome. There is a single data access process, with public oversight provided by our public review committee, the Data Trust Committee. Contact pioneer@uhb.nhs.uk or visit www.pioneerdatahub.co.uk for more details.

Available supplementary data: Matched controls; ambulance and community data. Unstructured data (images). We can provide the dataset in OMOP and other common data models and can build synthetic data to meet bespoke requirements.

Available supplementary support: Analytics, model build, validation & refinement; A.I. support. Data partner support for ETL (extract, transform & load) processes. Bespoke and “off the shelf” Trusted Research Environment (TRE) build and run. Consultancy with clinical, patient & end-user and purchaser access/ support. Support for regulatory requirements. Cohort discovery. Data-driven trials and “fast screen” services to assess population size.

The number of admissions to NHS hospitals in England, both elective and emergency, increased year-on-year from 2014 to 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital admissions dropped in 2020/21, especially elective admissions. By 2024/25 there were nearly ** million elective admissions and *** million emergency admissions. Numbers have therefore returned to and exceeded pre-pandemic amounts. A total of **** million admissions were recorded in 2024/25, including other methods of admission.

Parameter variables and values for the compartmental model.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is a database containing details of all admissions, A and E attendances and outpatient appointments at NHS hospitals in England.

Initially this data is collected during a patient's time at hospital as part of the Commissioning Data Set (CDS). This is submitted to NHS Digital for processing and is returned to healthcare providers as the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data set and includes information relating to payment for activity undertaken. It allows hospitals to be paid for the care they deliver.

This same data can also be processed and used for non-clinical purposes, such as research and planning health services. Because these uses are not to do with direct patient care, they are called 'secondary uses'. This is the HES data set.

• HES data covers all NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, including:
• private patients treated in NHS hospitals
• patients resident outside of England care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS

Each HES record contains a wide range of information about an individual patient admitted to an NHS hospital, including:

clinical information about diagnoses and operations

patient information, such as age group, gender and ethnicity

administrative information, such as dates and methods of admission and discharge

geographical information such as where patients are treated and the area where they live

We apply a strict statistical disclosure control in accordance with the NHS Digital protocol, to all published HES data. This suppresses small numbers to stop people identifying themselves and others, to ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-accident--emergency-activity

Afghanistan Hospital Beds: per 1000 People data was reported at 0.390 Number in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.500 Number for 2016. Afghanistan Hospital Beds: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 0.420 Number from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 23 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.530 Number in 2013 and a record low of 0.171 Number in 1960. Afghanistan Hospital Beds: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Afghanistan – Table AF.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Hospital beds include inpatient beds available in public, private, general, and specialized hospitals and rehabilitation centers. In most cases beds for both acute and chronic care are included.;Data are from the World Health Organization, supplemented by country data.;Weighted average;