Whilst no one really wishes to end up in a hospital bed, not all froms of complex care can be delivered at home. From time to time , we need a bed in hospital either for some very urgent life saving measure or some somewhat planned routine treatment/operation etc. Also lots of things are done in hospitals which do not require a bed or overnight stay. The question is , do our hospitals have adequate numbers of beds for the needs of the community. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development ( OECD ) has recently published some details of bed provisions in hospitals across the globe. This makes an interesting reading..<p>
Among the major western european countries , Germany has the largest number 8.27 per 1000 adult population -- Austria comes next with 7.65;Hungary 7.17; Poland 6.55 etc The UK have only 2.95 ! only higher than in Sweden with 2.71. Japan , on the other side of the world has nearly 13.5 per thousand. Only the bed numbers can not tell the full story; despite a 'low' bed numbers in hospitals, Sweden has excellent community service provisions and most of the health care can be delivered at home or at community centres. Provisions in countries eg India , Mexico ,Chile and Indonesia are much lower and often uncertain. <p>
So do we need a massive increase in hospital beds? I think not ; just having hundreds of beds means nothing - lots of other things are required . Perhaps we do need some increase - yet I am not sure, that by itself, that would stop trolley waits in casualty rooms or transfer of patients from ward to ward and also discharge of many elderly vulnerable patients before they are ready.
Care needs to be a combined multidisciplinary measure jointly between the community and the hospitals. Just passing the buck to one will not solve anything...
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