number of beds was accompanied by a slight
increase in the number of private inpatient beds,
which are inpatient beds owned by not-for-profit
and for-profit private institutions. But the share of
private hospital beds – where figures are available
– was still quite low in most countries, with
percentages higher than 30% only in Spain (31.4%),
chart 7
Number of hospital beds in 2015 and number of
beds lifted (added) since 2000
Number of beds in 2015
Number of beds lifted/added since 2000
Finland
-15,173
Sweden -7,780
Lithuania -10,676
Denmark -8,547
Ireland -9,258
Latvia
-9,512
Slovenia
-1,430
Estonia
-3,304
Luxembourg
-183
0
5,000
10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000
Greece
-5,555
Switzerland
-7,205
Portugal
-2,942
Slovakia
-11,161
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
Spain
-9,713
Netherlands
-6,549
Belgium
-9,909
Hungary
-14,428
Czech Republic
-11,593
Austria
+1,464
0
25,000
50,000
75,000
100,000
125,000
150,000
Germany
-70,149
France
-73,992
Poland
-3,139
Italy
-73,992
United Kingdom
-70,149
0
150,000
300,000
450,000
600,000
750,000
18
HHE 2018 | hospitalhealthcare.com
Italy (32.0%), Greece (34.7%), France (37.7%),
Cyprus (47.6%) and Germany (59.3%) (Chart 9).
Between 2000 and 2014, the number of acute
hospitals decreased significantly all over Europe.
A total of 357 acute care hospitals were closed in
Germany, 193 in France, 170 in Italy and 122 in
Switzerland.
The rate of acute care hospital beds for 100,000
inhabitants in 2015 in EU ranged from 226 in
Sweden to 611 in Germany. The highest figures
were observable in Belgium (565), Austria (566)
and Lithuania (608) while the lowest figures were
in Spain (241), Denmark (246) and Italy (264).
Between 2000 and 2015, the number of
acute care hospital beds per 100,000 population
registered an average reduction of 20.5% in the
EU. The most significant decreases were in Latvia
(-44.6%), Denmark (-42.3%), Estonia (-38.7%) and
Italy (-37.4%). The only exceptions were Ireland
(+1.8%) and Netherlands (+18.4%) (Chart 10).
The reduction in the number of hospital beds
regards especially the public providers. In the
countries where data are available, this trend is
associated with an increase of hospital beds in
private structures. This is the case for Austria,
Denmark, Finland, Greece, Latvia and Portugal.
The countries that registered a decrease in both
categories are the Czech Republic, Estonia, France,
Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and Spain.
The number of acute care admissions involves
the entire pathway of hospitalisation of a patient,
who normally stays in hospital for at least
24 hours and then is discharged, returns home,
is transferred to another facility or dies. Last data
available for this figure is from 2014. The rates of
acute care hospital admissions in the European
countries were quite dissimilar, ranging from
7.8% in Cyprus to 24.6% in Austria.
The average length of stay measures the total
number of occupied hospital bed-days, divided
by the total number of admissions or discharges.
In 2014, the average length of stay in acute care
hospitals ranged from 5.2 bed-days in Malta to 7.6
bed-days in Germany. In Serbia, this value is 8.4
bed-days.