CHART 7
Number of hospital beds in 2016 and number of
beds lifted (added) since 2006. The four clusters
are grouped considering the total number of
hospital beds in 2016: <25,000; 25,000>50,000;
50,000>150,000; >150,000
Number of beds in 2016
Number of beds lifted (added) since 2006
-3,016
Sweden
Finland
-14,958
Lithuania
-4,186
Denmark
-5,742
Ireland
-8,662
Latvia
-6,199
Slovenia
-301
Estonia
-1,215
+118
Luxembourg
0
5,000
10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000
Greece
-8,428
Switzerland
-2,289
Portugal -1,268
Slovak Republic -4,773
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
Spain
-8,233
Czech Republic
-3,853
Hungary
-11,628
Austria
+1,484
Belgium
-2,748
The Netherlands
-16,373
0
25,000
50,000
75,000
100,000
125,000
Germany
150,000
-19,543
France
-46,862
Poland
+5,285
Italy
-39,841
United Kingdom
-46,579
0
150,000
300,000
450,000
600,000
750,000
8
HHE 2019 | hospitalhealthcare.com
100,000 inhabitants of 87 and 24 units,
respectively.
In several countries, the decrease in the total
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
or for-profit private institutions. In 2016, in most
of the countries where the data are available, the
beds in private owned hospitals as a percentage of
all beds ranged from 1% in Slovenia and Lithuania
to 38% in France. The figures were higher in
Cyprus (46%), Germany (59%) and The Netherlands
(100%).
The rate of acute care hospital beds for 100,000
inhabitants in 2016 in the EU ranged from 215 in
Sweden to 606 in Germany. The highest figures
were seen in Belgium (503), Austria (555) and
Lithuania (581), whereas the lowest figures were
in Spain (241), Denmark (252) and Italy (262).
Between 2006 and 2016, the number of acute
care hospital beds per 100,000 population
reduced on average by 13% in EU. The most
significant decreases were in Latvia (–36%),
Denmark (–32%) and Hungary (–28%). The only
exceptions were Ireland (+1%), The Netherlands
(+1%) and Poland (+6%).
The reduction in the number of hospital beds
relates especially to the public providers. In the
countries where data are available, this trend is
associated with an increase of hospital beds in
private organisations. This is the case in Austria,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Romania.
The countries that registered a decrease in both
categories are Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Slovenia
and Spain.
The number of acute care discharges involves
the entire pathway of hospitalisation of a patient,
who normally stays in hospital for at least one
night and then is discharged, returns home, is
transferred to another facility, or dies. Curative
care comprises health care contacts during which
the principal intent is to relieve symptoms of