The NHS has a shortage of hospital beds, with occupancy rates consistently exceeding safe levels. As the health system faces unprecedented pressures due to rising demand and the burden of COVID-19, bed capacity will remain a critical limiting factor in the ability of the NHS to recover.

This page provides analysis on the availability and occupancy of beds in the English NHS and is updated regularly with new data.

A persistent shortage of beds has helped make corridor care an everyday occurrence

Corridor care, sometimes referred to as a ‘trolley wait’, occurs when a lack of beds on wards forces staff to treat patients in ‘temporary escalation spaces’ such as hospital corridors, waiting rooms, or other communal spaces. 

Corridor care has become all too common, with services frequently unable to accommodate demand in urgent and emergency care. This has a severe impact on the safety of care as well on patient dignity and the wellbeing of staff.   

The BMA, alongside the Royal College of Nursing and other prominent organisations, has co-signed a call for urgent action to eliminate corridor care and guarantee fair and equitable treatment for all.  

The UK has fewer hospital beds than comparable nations

Compared to other nations, the UK has a very low total number of hospital beds relative to its population. The average number of beds per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 4.6, but the UK has just 2.4. Germany, by contrast, has 7.8.

Combined with staffing shortages, an insufficient core bed stock means that hospitals are less able to cope with large influxes of patients, for example during winter or periods of high demand.

This has ultimately impacted hospitals’ ability to provide safe and timely care and remains a major factor in growing backlogs.

NHS hospital bed stocks have changed over time

Overall bed stock has declined

Prior to the pandemic, the total English NHS hospital bed stock reduced by 8.3% between 2010/11 and 2019/20 as the average daily total of available beds fell from 153,725 to 140,978.

The ratio of beds that are overnight versus day-only has also undergone change. Between 2010/11 and 2019/20 the overnight bed stock shrunk by 10% while the number of day-only beds increased by 13.4%. From 2019/20 to 2023/24 the overnight bed stock slightly increased by 1.8% whereas the number of day-only beds declined by 1.1%.

Different settings

The extent to which overnight bed numbers have fallen varies across different settings. Learning disability and mental illness beds have seen the largest reduction of 59.8% and 20.1 % from 2010/11- 2023/24. This reflects policies to move care for these patient groups out of hospitals and into the community. 

A  reduction has also occurred in the available number of general and acute overnight beds which have decreased by 6.9%, from 108,958 average daily beds in 2010/11 to 101,432 in 2019/20. Since then, there has been an increase by 2.9%, bringing the number of average daily beds to 104,418 in 2023/24.

The rise in general and acute day-only beds reflects an increase in day-case surgeries reducing the need for overnight stays, following clinical innovations that have lowered the time patients generally need to spend in hospital.

Safe limits are routinely breached

Rising occupancy

While overall bed numbers have declined, occupancy rates have been rising.

Since 2010, average bed occupancy has consistently surpassed 85%, the level generally considered to be the point beyond which safety and efficiency are at risk.

Coming into the pandemic, England had an average occupancy of 90.2% in 2019/20. However, local variation in supply and demand have seen many trusts regularly exceeding 95% capacity in the winter months.

Bed shortages alongside high occupancy rates are unsafe for patients and staff. It can:

• increase delays in emergency departments
• delay patients transfer from intensive care units and between wards
• add stress to staff and patients.

Pressures in social care are causing delayed discharges from hospital

Issues surrounding bed capacity are compounded further by discharge delays caused by pressures in social care. Up to one in three English hospital beds are occupied by patients who are medically fit to be discharged, but remain in hospital as there is no space for them in social care. This issue highlights the importance of properly funding both health and social care systems so that they can effectively work together.

Ageing population 

The UK’s ageing population is also a factor in increased pressure on beds. Since 2002, the number of people aged 100 and over has more than doubled in England and Wales. As a result, 49% of all people arriving in A&E by ambulance are over 65 and 35% over 75. Due to the lack of funding in social care, a significant number of beds are occupied by elderly patients who cannot be discharged without an effective care package in place. 

Long-term conditions 

Critical care capacity remains low despite increases in beds

The UK has fewer critical care beds than other OECD countries and occupancy rates are persistently high, leaving too few available critical care beds – especially during periods of high demand. This can contribute to instances of corridor care, which poses serious risks for patient safety and dignity.  

The UK entered the pandemic with a low number of critical care beds relative to its population, with just 7.3 critical care beds per 100,000 people, more than half the average in OECD EU nations (15.9).

This is despite the total number of adult acute critical care beds actually having risen over the years. 

In placing new demands on critical care services, COVID-19 laid bare that England does not have enough critical care beds.

When the NHS was asked in early 2020 to free up critical care capacity to prepare for a surge in patients, it achieved this through reorganising existing resources to:

• reduce demand by postponing non-urgent planned operations
• increase the amount of beds and physical spaces dedicated to critical care by reducing capacity elsewhere, including repurposing recovery rooms
• redeploy staff from elsewhere in the NHS.

As a result of these measures the number of available critical care beds saw a sharp increase between March and April 2020.

However, the need for rapid expansion of critical care capacity has come at a large cost to the NHS, which now faces extensive backlogs in other parts of the system. See our secondary care capacity analysis.

What the BMA is calling for