In 2021, the occupancy rate of curative (acute) care beds in hospitals in Canada was almost 87 percent. In the year 2000, Canada had an acute care bed occupancy rate of around 89 percent. High occupancy rates may be a sign that a health system is under pressure and that there may be a risk of bed shortages and higher rates of infection. This statistic shows the occupancy rates of acute care beds in hospitals in select countries worldwide in 2010 and 2021.

On March 31, 2024, there were 50 critical care (CC) beds in England occupied with patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. The number of critical care beds occupied with COVID patients peaked in England on January 22, 2021 when 4,096 patients required critical care treatment. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Bed availability and bed occupancy.

Source agency: NHS England

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Bed availability and occupancy

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.

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.

This is the latest compendium publication in the NHS Vacancy Statistics series containing vacancy related data for the NHS which provide different views on recruitment information for the NHS. Data from NHS Jobs, the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and Trac Recruitment Management Software (Trac) provide a range of proxy data sources for NHS vacancies. The series also includes management information related to vacancies within the NHS which have been collected by NHS England (NHSE). Due to the complex nature of how NHS vacancy data is defined and collected, all data sources should be treated with a degree of caution. Users should note these data do not indicate how much of the reported substantive gap is filled by temporary staff. NHS England is currently developing guidance for NHS Trusts regarding the recording of Establishment numbers (planned and funded workforce levels), which are used in the calculation of vacancy rates. This is to ensure that these figures are recorded consistently by Trusts and provide a more accurate figure of establishment and therefore vacancy rates. This work may also consider the collection and presentation of data on the temporary staff who are employed by Trusts, to enhance existing vacancy data and information. To help with the development of this publication, feedback can be sent to: enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk with the subject heading ‘NHS Vacancy Statistics publication feedback’.

This publication was archived on 12 October 2023. Please see the Viral Respiratory Diseases (Including Influenza and COVID-19) in Scotland publication for the latest data. This dataset provides information on number of new daily confirmed cases, negative cases, deaths, testing by NHS Labs (Pillar 1) and UK Government (Pillar 2), new hospital admissions, new ICU admissions, hospital and ICU bed occupancy from novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, including cumulative totals and population rates at Scotland, NHS Board and Council Area levels (where possible). Seven day positive cases and population rates are also presented by Neighbourhood Area (Intermediate Zone 2011). Information on how PHS publish small are COVID figures is available on the PHS website. Information on demographic characteristics (age, sex, deprivation) of confirmed novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, as well as trend data regarding the wider impact of the virus on the healthcare system is provided in this publication. Data includes information on primary care out of hours consultations, respiratory calls made to NHS24, contact with COVID-19 Hubs and Assessment Centres, incidents received by Scottish Ambulance Services (SAS), as well as COVID-19 related hospital admissions and admissions to ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Further data on the wider impact of the COVID-19 response, focusing on hospital admissions, unscheduled care and volume of calls to NHS24, is available on the COVID-19 Wider Impact Dashboard. Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Clinical presentation may range from mild-to-moderate illness to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 12 March 2020. We now have spread of COVID-19 within communities in the UK. Public Health Scotland no longer reports the number of COVID-19 deaths within 28 days of a first positive test from 2nd June 2022. Please refer to NRS death certificate data as the single source for COVID-19 deaths data in Scotland. In the process of updating the hospital admissions reporting to include reinfections, we have had to review existing methodology. In order to provide the best possible linkage of COVID-19 cases to hospital admissions, each admission record is required to have a discharge date, to allow us to better match the most appropriate COVID positive episode details to an admission. This means that in cases where the discharge date is missing (either due to the patient still being treated, delays in discharge information being submitted or data quality issues), it has to be estimated. Estimating a discharge date for historic records means that the average stay for those with missing dates is reduced, and fewer stays overlap with records of positive tests. The result of these changes has meant that approximately 1,200 historic COVID admissions have been removed due to improvements in methodology to handle missing discharge dates, while approximately 820 have been added to the cumulative total with the inclusion of reinfections. COVID-19 hospital admissions are now identified as the following: A patient's first positive PCR or LFD test of the episode of infection (including reinfections at 90 days or more) for COVID-19 up to 14 days prior to admission to hospital, on the day of their admission or during their stay in hospital. If a patient's first positive PCR or LFD test of the episode of infection is after their date of discharge from hospital, they are not included in the analysis. Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform. Data visualisation of Scottish COVID-19 cases is available on the Public Health Scotland - Covid 19 Scotland dashboard. Further information on coronavirus in Scotland is available on the Scottish Government - Coronavirus in Scotland page, where further breakdown of past coronavirus data has also been published.

Psychiatric crisis care is under great pressure, with the number of psychiatric presentations to emergency departments increasing and inpatient wards operating with occupancy rates above recommended levels. Internationally, hospital-based short-stay crisis units (named Psychiatric Decision Units; (PDU) in the UK) have been introduced to address these challenges, but the current evidence for their effectiveness is limited. We estimated the effects of PDUs in four geographic locations in England, linked to three National Health Service (NHS) mental health trusts and six NHS acute hospital trusts. Using national data sets to create synthetic controls from areas without PDUs (following the generalised synthetic control method), we estimated trust-wide changes to the primary outcomes of psychiatric inpatient admissions and psychiatric presentations to emergency departments (ED), compared to the synthetic controls, alongside secondary outcomes. We used meta-analysis to robustly combine outcomes. We analysed NHS hospital activity data for adults aged between 18 and 75 years covering 24 months preceding and following the introduction of each PDU (November 2012 to January 2021). We found no significant impacts of PDUs on primary outcomes, except at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with 1.5 fewer psychiatric presentations to ED per 10,000 trust population per month (relative difference: 24.9%, p = 0.034) than the synthetic control. We found mixed effects of the opening of PDUs on secondary outcomes. Meta-analyses indicated a significantly lower mean length of stay for psychiatric admissions (-6.4 days, p 

The UK has an ageing population – for the Residential Nursing Care industry, this is an opportunity for growth with demand for more beds expanding. Homes have upped their average weekly fees, contributing to revenue. High inflation over the two years through 2023-24 has raised fees further. However, state involvement has limited growth, which has kept care fees artificially low for many nursing home residents. Residential nursing care revenue is anticipated to remain stable at £9.3 billion over the five years through 2024-25, including revenue growth of 3% in 2024-25. Weak government funding and wage cost pressures caused by the rising National Living Wage (which will increase to £12.21 in April 2025) have constrained profitability. Labour supply shortages caused by high turnover rates have been of particular concern. According to Skills For Care, the job vacancy rate in 2023-24 in the adult care sector was 8.3%, way above the average rate in the UK economy. That being said, the vacancy rate is declining thanks mainly to a government-driven recruitment drive to attract overseas workers, which has been helped by reducing visa requirements. Rising real household disposable income had supported more self-funded residents, aiding residential nursing care. However, data from the ONS revealed the percentage of self-funded residents fell from 36.7% in 2019-20 to 34.9% over the year through February 2022. In the year through February 2023, this has risen again to 37% of the 372,035 care home residents. Families are still struggling with the rising cost of living, reducing the number of people able to afford private care home costs, which has somewhat constrained revenue growth. Over the five years through 2029-30, residential and nursing care revenue is estimated to expand at a compound annual rate of 4.1% to £11.4 billion. Robust demand from an ageing population will support industry growth. However, plans for adult social care reforms are to be released in two stages (the first in 2026 and the second in 2028), which has caused greater uncertainty for the sector's future. Staff shortage concerns will continue to plague nursing care.

Due to current resource constraints and organisational changes at NHS Digital, the Workforce Team are having to focus on priority areas of work whilst new and additional requests for work continue to grow. Therefore, during this period of change, the scope of the next two publications in the series (due for release at the end of November 2019 and February 2020) will be considerably reduced. These upcoming publications will therefore be limited to include: High-level Key Facts for NHS Jobs data The standard CSV file for NHS Jobs data which normally accompanies the publication A truncated Excel file containing NHS Improvement management information only During this pause, NHS Digital will work on making improvements to the publication, primarily focusing on working with TRAC to incorporate their data into the compendium publication for the first time in May 2020; exploring what more can be done with data from ESR; and improving the NHS Jobs data tables. Please refer to previous publications in the series for more detailed information. To help with the development of this publication, feedback is continually welcomed and can be sent to: enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk with the subject heading ‘NHS Vacancy Statistics publication feedback’.

This is the third provisional experimental publication of NHS vacancy statistics created from administrative data related to published vacancy adverts obtained from NHS Jobs, the main recruitment website for the NHS. The statistics referred to in this document and the accompanying tables are exploratory and provide information on the administrative data available from NHS Jobs as much as on the recruitment of staff. This publication provides figures which are an insight to recruitment in the NHS but which should be treated with caution, though the expanded time series may now begin to allow users to consider relative changes over time. This publication incorporates feedback received in response to the two previous publications and welcomes further input regarding the future development of this publication series.

Please note; NHS Digital is working with NHS Improvement to change the NHS Vacancy Statistics publication into a compendium publication, incorporating both NHS Jobs, ESR and NHS Improvement data in a single publication. This is the latest provisional experimental publication of NHS vacancy statistics created from administrative data related to published vacancy adverts obtained from NHS Jobs, the main recruitment website for the NHS. The statistics referred to in this document and the accompanying tables are exploratory and provide information on the administrative data available from NHS Jobs as much as on the recruitment of staff. This publication provides figures which are an insight to recruitment in the NHS but which should be treated with caution, though the expanded time series now allows users to consider relative changes over time. We welcome feedback on the methodology and tables within this publication. Please email us with your comments and suggestions, clearly stating NHS Workforce Vacancy Statistics as the subject heading, via enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk or 0300 303 5678

This is the latest provisional experimental publication of NHS vacancy statistics created from administrative data related to published vacancy adverts obtained from NHS Jobs, the main recruitment website for the NHS. The statistics referred to in this document and the accompanying tables are exploratory and provide information on the administrative data available from NHS Jobs as much as on the recruitment of staff. This publication provides figures which are an insight to recruitment in the NHS but which should be treated with caution, though the expanded time series now allows users to consider relative changes over time. We welcome feedback on the methodology and tables within this publication. Please email us with your comments and suggestions, clearly stating NHS Workforce Vacancy Statistics as the subject heading, via enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk or 0300 303 5678

The purpose of these surveys are to highlight problems with recruitment so that they can be addressed. They focus on total and three month vacancies within NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS). Data is presented for both the number of total and three month vacancies and the total and three month vacancy rate. Caution is needed when looking at some of the smaller areas of work within the main staff groups as the numbers of staff in post and the number of vacancies are small and can show large rates.

We look at joiners, leavers and non-movers to analyse NHS staff turnover and stability amongst doctors and doctors in training. We can break down doctors turnover by NHS organisation. Graphs and tables of 2005-2006 turnover work can be downloaded above but specific queries can be dealt with individually. If you have an enquiry on this please contact us at enquiries@ic.nhs.uk

We look at joiners, leavers and non-movers to analyse NHS staff turnover and stability amongst non medical staff. We can break this down by any combination of staff group, NHS organisation or geographical area. Examples of 2005-2006 turnover work can be accessed above but specific queries can be dealt with individually. If you have an enquiry on this please contact us at enquiries@ic.nhs.uk