Hospital Bed Accommodation Requirements of a Region

FROM time to time assessments have been made of the number of hospital beds required per thousand of the population served. In 1950 the Ministry of Health published a Memorandum on the Development of Consultant Services which, on the overall pattern suggests a figure of from six to seven acute beds per thousand, excluding maternity beds. It is, however, essential to define the particular area, and particular requirements within a Region, and to define very closely the assumptions on which calculations are based. For example, in an average Region with a University Teaching School and a hinterland of provincial towns and rural areas, certain specialities will naturally be aggregated at the Teaching Centre giving such a picture of six to seven beds per thousand of population in the University City, but, when such specialities are excluded, but local maternity beds included, the figure for acute beds for a Provincial Centre falls to just over five beds per thousand of population served. A Report of the Department of Health for Scotland in 1946 gave eight beds for a closely-knit industrial area, but this figure excluded maternity beds and included chronic sick other than aged and infirm. From 1938 onwards, the Ministry of Health, in association with the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, agreed to arrange for surveys of various hospital areas in England and Wales. The following recommended standards are taken from these surveys.