CHART 10
Number of acute care hospital beds per 100,000
inhabitants in 2016 and percentage of beds per
100,000 lifted (or added) since 2006
In 2016, the average acute care
occupancy rate in Europe was equal
to 75%, but the gap between the
highest and the lowest rate was 35
percentage points
2016
Variation between 2006 and 2016
Austria
-13%
Lithuania
-9%
Germany
-2%
and a mean length of stay of 6 days for acute care
hospitals. Chart 11 shows that both indicators are
higher than the EU average in Austria, Belgium,
Finland, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and
Germany.
The bed occupancy rate represents the average
number of days when hospital beds are occupied
during the whole year and generally mirrors how
intensively hospital capacity is used.
Between 2006 and 2016, the average rate of
acute bed occupancy decreased in Europe. The
reduction was encompassed between –8.4 p.p. and
–8.2 p.p. in the Czech Republic and The
Netherlands, respectively, and –0.5 in Estonia and
Italy. The increase ranged between +0.8 p.p. and
+2.8 p.p. in the United Kingdom and Germany,
respectively. In Ireland, the increase was 7.5 p.p.
These large variations are usually due to changes
in the number of admissions, average length of
stay and the extent to which alternatives to full
hospitalisation have been developed in each
country (Chart 12).
-28%
Hungary
-12%
Belgium
-12%
Slovak Republic
Latvia -36%
Czech Republic -20%
+6%
Poland
-8%
Slovenia
Switzerland -19%
Luxembourg -13%
-16%
Estonia
-11%
Greece
-32%
Denmark
Finland -19%
France -13%
-4%
Portugal
-23%
Italy
+1%
The Netherlands
Ireland +1%
Sweden -18%
-8%
Spain
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Hospital and healthcare workforce
Despite the growing interest in self-treatment and
the growing role of eHealth and mHealth, health
workers remain the crucial component of health
systems, providing health services to the
population. Jobs in the health and social sector
now account for more than 10% of total
employment in many OECD countries. Despite
the tendency for the number of health care
workers to grow in the last 15 years, policy
CHART 11
Comparison between the rate of inpatient discharges per 100 and average length of stay
in acute care hospitals: Year 2016
8.0
Germany
Luxembourg
7.5
Portugal
Lithuania
7.0
Belgium
Italy
Slovak Republic
Poland
6.5
Finland Slovenia
United Kingdom
6.0
Spain
Austria
Estonia
Latvia
Czech Republic
Ireland
5.5
France
Sweden
Switerland
Hungary
Greece
5.0
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Acute care inpatient discharges per 100
10
HHE 2019 | hospitalhealthcare.com