2,000 beds vanish from NHS
New figures out from the Department of Health show that actual bed numbers in NHS hospitals fell by more than 2,000 in the past two years.
The Department said the drop off was primarily due to more patients being cared for outside hospital in specialist areas such as mental health and maternity care.
Provision for general and acute bed numbers had risen, the Department of Health spokesman said, with the NHS now only 25 per cent off meeting its target of 2,100 extra beds by 2004.
136,679 general and acute beds were available in 2002-03, an increase of 885 on 2000-01.
The total number of beds in all wards in NHS hospitals in England fell by 2,265 from 186,091 in 2000-01 to 183,826 in 2002-03.
Beds in maternity wards were down 411 from 9,797 in 2000-01 to 9,356 in 2002-03.
Beds in the learning disability area dropped off by 1,278 over the same period from 6,316 to 5,038.
And there was a reduction of 1,461 in the number of mental illness beds from 34,214 to 32,753.
