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.

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 2020 this figure was approximately 163 thousand. This means over this period there were over 80 thousand fewer hospital beds in the UK. However in the recent years since 2020, the number of hospital beds have been increasing, the first time in the recorded time period.

Fewer beds but admissions are still high

There were almost 16.4 million admissions to hospital between April 2022 to March 2023 in England. The number of admissions has recovered somewhat since the drop in year 2020/21. The busiest hospital trust in England by admissions in the year 2022/23 was the University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust with over 333 thousand admissions. The average length of stay in hospitals in the UK in 2021 for acute care was seven days.

Accident and Emergency

In the first quarter of 2023/24, A&E in England received around 6.5 million attendees. The number of attendances has been creeping upwards since 2012. Around 2.4 percent of people attending A&E in the last year were diagnosed with an upper respiratory condition, followed by 1.8 percent with a lower respiratory tract infection.

The number of available hospital beds in Wales decreased from 12,149 in 2010/11 to 10,276 in 2020/21. Since then, the number of hospital beds has slightly increased, reaching 10,447 by 2023/24.

This data package contains the hospital bed availability and occupancy data by consultant main specialty and sector as well as data on inpatient and outpatient related hospital activity in England. It also contains information on Sub-Saharan public hospitals.

United Kingdom UK: Hospital Beds: per 1000 People data was reported at 2.900 Number in 2011. This records a decrease from the previous number of 2.980 Number for 2010. United Kingdom UK: Hospital Beds: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 4.600 Number from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2011, with 23 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 10.700 Number in 1960 and a record low of 2.900 Number in 2011. United Kingdom UK: 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 United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: 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;

The number of available hospital beds in NHS England decreased overall in the recorded time period, reaching a low of 118,473 in 2020/21. The number of hospital beds has since increased to pre-pandemic levels and shows the first signs of growing.

This data package contains information about Acute Hospital for Outpatient Activity Cross Boundary Flow, statistics on attendances at Accident and Emergency (A&E) services and Emergency Hospital Admissions due to Unintentional Injuries. It also includes information for Inpatient and Daycase Activity Stays and Episodes by Health Board Residence and Treatment as well as NHS Staffed Beds and Percentage Occupancy and Procedures Performed for Children In An Acute Setting For NHS Scotland.

In order to provide an effective, safe and efficient service to patients, hospitals must balance the provision of staffed beds against anticipated demand. Historically, the total number of beds has been reducing in line with evolving models of healthcare provision which aim to reduce the frequency and duration of hospital admissions and improve the integration of health and social care services. This strategy aims to improve outcomes for patients and reduce the likelihood of future hospital admissions. Further information on hospital beds can be found in the recent annual publication. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications. As part of making our open data output align better with our annual publication tables, we have applied column ordering to the Inpatient, Outpatient and Beds files in the September 2021 annual open data release consistent with the publication excel tables.

Following public consultation these publications will be released as a single publication on a quarterly basis from 29 March 2011:

Quarterly summary of inpatient, day case and outpatient activity and beds statistics for NHSScotland.

Emergency Admissions for patients aged 65+: Summary of emergency admissions and bed days data for patients aged 65+. Data specifically relate to HEAT target.

Monthly figures for same-day surgery. Data specifically relate to HEAT target.

Source agency: ISD Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland)

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds information

Average daily number of available and occupied beds by sector, NHS organisations in England

Source: Department of Health (DoH)

Publisher: Department of Health

Geographies: Primary Care Trust (PCT), Strategic Health Authority (SHA)

Geographic coverage: England

Time coverage: 2000-2001 to 2007-2008

Type of data: Administrative data

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)

This publication provides the most timely picture available of people using NHS funded secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services in England. These are experimental statistics which are undergoing development and evaluation. This information will be of use to people needing access to information quickly for operational decision making and other purposes. More detailed information on the quality and completeness of these statistics is made available later in our Mental Health Bulletin: Annual Report publication series. • COVID-19 and the production of statistics Due to the coronavirus illness (COVID-19) disruption, it would seem that this is now starting to affect the quality and coverage of some of our statistics, such as an increase in non-submissions for some datasets. We are also starting to see some different patterns in the submitted data. For example, fewer patients are being referred to hospital and more appointments being carried out via phone/telemedicine/email. Therefore, data should be interpreted with care over the COVID-19 period. • Early release of statistics To support the ongoing COVID-19 work July 2020 monthly statistics were made available early and presented on our supplementary information pages. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/supplementary-information/2020/provisional-july-2020-mental-health-statistics • Changing existing measures The move to MHSDS version 4.1 from April 2020 has brought with it changes to the dataset; the construction of a number of measures have been changed as a result. Improvements in the methodology of reporting delay of discharge has also resulted in a change in the construction of the measure from the April 2020 publication onwards. Full details of these changes are available in the associated Metadata file. • New measures A number of new measures have been included from the April 2020 publication onwards: • MHS76 Count of people subject to restrictive interventions • MHS77 Count of restrictive interventions • MHS78 Discharges from adult acute beds eligible for 72 hour follow up in the reporting period • MHS79 Discharges from adult acute beds followed up within 72 hours in the reporting period • MHS80 Proportion of discharges from adult acute beds eligible for 72 hour follow up - followed up in the reporting period Full details of these are available in the associated Metadata file. • CCG and STP changes A number of changes to NHS organisations were made operationally effective from 1 April 2020. These changes included: 74 former Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) merging to form 18 new CCGs; alterations to commissioning hubs; provider mergers; and the incorporation of Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) into the NHS commissioning hierarchy. The Organisation Data Service (ODS) is responsible for publishing organisation and practitioner codes, along with related national policies and standards. A series of ODS data amendments are required to support the introduction of these changes. This would normally result in a number of organisations becoming ‘legally’ closed including the 74 former CCGs. However, to minimise any burden to the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic and remove any non-critical activity, these organisations remain open within ODS data. ODS aim to both legally and operationally close predecessor organisations involved in April 2020 Reconfiguration on 30 September 2020. Activity may be recorded against either former or current organisations, depending on data providers and processors ability to transition to the new organisation codes at this time. The same activity will not be recorded against both former and current organisations. There is no impact on this statistics presented here as CCG is derived in all cases within this publication. • Women in contact with mental health services who were new or expectant mothers Please be aware on 19 November 2020 the quarterly women in contact with mental health services who were new or expectant mothers analysis was published following an investigation into an issue that prevented publication on the originally announced date. NHS Digital apologises for any inconvenience caused.

OMOP dataset: Hospital COVID patients: severity, acuity, therapies, outcomes Dataset number 2.0

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was identified in January 2020. Currently, there have been more than 6 million cases & more than 1.5 million deaths worldwide. Some individuals experience severe manifestations of infection, including viral pneumonia, adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) & death. There is a pressing need for tools to stratify patients, to identify those at greatest risk. Acuity scores are composite scores which help identify patients who are more unwell to support & prioritise clinical care. There are no validated acuity scores for COVID-19 & it is unclear whether standard tools are accurate enough to provide this support. This secondary care COVID OMOP dataset contains granular demographic, morbidity, serial acuity and outcome data to inform risk prediction tools in COVID-19.

PIONEER geography The West Midlands (WM) has a population of 5.9 million & includes a diverse ethnic & socio-economic mix. There is a higher than average percentage of minority ethnic groups. WM has a large number of elderly residents but is the youngest population in the UK. Each day >100,000 people are treated in hospital, see their GP or are cared for by the NHS. The West Midlands was one of the hardest hit regions for COVID admissions in both wave 1 & 2.

EHR. University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (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 & 100 ITU beds. 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”. UHB has cared for >5000 COVID admissions to date. This is a subset of data in OMOP format.

Scope: All COVID swab confirmed hospitalised patients to UHB from January – August 2020. The dataset includes highly granular patient demographics & co-morbidities taken from ICD-10 & SNOMED-CT codes. Serial, structured data pertaining to care process (timings, staff grades, specialty review, wards), presenting complaint, acuity, all physiology readings (pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturations), all blood results, microbiology, all prescribed & administered treatments (fluids, antibiotics, inotropes, vasopressors, organ support), all outcomes.

Available supplementary data: Health data preceding & following admission event. Matched “non-COVID” controls; ambulance, 111, 999 data, synthetic data. Further OMOP data available as an additional service.

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.

Summary of activity in the acute hospital sector of NHSScotland. Prior to December 2009 this publication was released as part of an overall "Acute Hospital Activity" publication.

From March 2011 this publication will be part of a new quarterly publication - the "Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds information".

Source agency: ISD Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland)

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Acute Hospital Activity

London was the city in the United Kingdom with the highest costs for constructing a general hospital in 2024. Meanwhile, among cities included in this selection, Leeds was the cheapest one to build that kind of structure. The expenses of such a construction in London were over *** British pounds higher than in Glasgow. The capital of the UK is the most expensive area for public building construction. Hospital bed numbers still in decline The number of hospital beds in the UK has been declining since 2000. Between 2000 and 2020, figures decreased from ******* to ******* number of beds. The reduction in hospital beds is, among other reasons, attributed to technical improvements in surgery rooms, patients with mental health problems being treated in different settings, and most importantly, cuts to NHS funding. However, the number of beds increased slightly again in 2021 and 2022. Increased healthcare spend Despite past funding cuts and declining availability of hospital beds, healthcare spending has significantly increased in the past twenty years. In 2022, expenditure reached a peak of nearly *** billion British pounds, whereas in 2000, this figure amounted to ** billion British pounds. The value of healthcare expenditure as a share of GDP also increased significantly in the past years.

The acute-care pathway (from the emergency department (ED) through acute medical units or ambulatory care and on to wards) is the most visible aspect of the hospital health-care system to most patients. Acute hospital admissions are increasing yearly and overcrowded emergency departments and high bed occupancy rates are associated with a range of adverse patient outcomes. Predicted growth in demand for acute care driven by an ageing population and increasing multimorbidity is likely to exacerbate these problems in the absence of innovation to improve the processes of care.

Key targets for Emergency Medicine services are changing, moving away from previous 4-hour targets. This will likely impact the assessment of patients admitted to hospital through Emergency Departments.

This data set provides highly granular patient level information, showing the day-to-day variation in case mix and acuity. The data includes detailed demography, co-morbidity, symptoms, longitudinal acuity scores, physiology and laboratory results, all investigations, prescriptions, diagnoses and outcomes. It could be used to develop new pathways or understand the prevalence or severity of specific disease presentations.

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

Electronic Health Record: University Hospital Birmingham 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: All patients with a medical emergency admitted to hospital, flowing through the acute medical unit. Longitudinal & individually linked, so that the preceding & subsequent health journey can be mapped & healthcare utilisation prior to & after admission understood. The dataset includes patient demographics, co-morbidities taken from ICD-10 & SNOMED-CT codes. Serial, structured data pertaining to process of care (timings, admissions, wards and readmissions), physiology readings (NEWS2 score and clinical frailty scale), Charlson comorbidity index and time dimensions.

Available supplementary data: Matched controls; ambulance data, 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.

Data on the numbers of people experiencing a delay in the arrangements for them to leave hospital, for example to go home, or to move to another more appropriate facility within the NHS, eg from an acute bed to a rehabilitation bed.

A highly granular dataset of 16,052 Same day emergency care (SDEC) spells with a focus on care pathways. It includes demography, co-morbidities, presenting symptoms, serial physiology, investigations, and outcomes.

Description (3000 Characters) – Current 2540 (with spaces)

Emergency care services face increasing pressure. NHS England (NHSE) has prioritised pathways for patients which avoid admission, including Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) services. The NHS Long Term Plan recommends SDEC assessment for one third of medical attendances.

​Care quality indicators (CQI) include times from arrival to assessment by senior clinical teams. Performance measured against these CQI are impacted by other factors, such as delays in referrals, awaiting investigation results.​ 

PIONEER has curated a highly granular dataset of 16,052 Same day emergency care (SDEC) spells, including not only detailed patient level information, but data about the wider clinical environment on the day of admission.

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.

Summary of AHP clinic data in the acute hospital sector of NHSScotland. Contains information on total attendances by service and new attendances by service and NHS Board.

From September 2011 this publication will be part of an annual publication - the "Annual Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds information".

The latest available data was released in December 2010.

Source agency: ISD Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland)

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Allied Health Professionals and Other Technical Departments - Activity

Note:One hospital's result in the PEAT Environment category has been found to need revision from 'Acceptable' to 'Good' (as a result of the provision of incorrect initial data by the Trust). The figures shown in the publication document have not been revised since neither the actual numbers in each category, nor the hospital's individual results are included, and the percentages shown in the publication are not affected. The hospital's individual results are included in the supporting Excel/CSV tables which have been amended accordingly (24 October 2011). These are the 2011 results from the annual Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) assessments undertaken by NHS and independent healthcare providers in respect of hospitals with 10 or more in-patient beds. This assessment focusses on the environment in which care is provided and the quality of non-clinical services such as food and privacy and dignity.