Chamber and committees

We note the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) have used a bed occupancy of 85% to estimate that NHS Scotland needs an additional 200 beds. For context, that is 1.5% of NHS Scotland’s acute bed base; RCEM also estimate that in England an additional 5,065 beds are needed - 5.0% of the general & acute bed base.

I understand that the 85% bed occupancy originates from research carried out around 20 years ago. There have been significant changes to the NHS and the way care is delivered since then, including the four hour A&E standard, ambulatory care, and same day surgery. We recognise that bed occupancy should be monitored as part of hospital bed planning. The latest published statistics show acute specialty bed occupancy in Scotland was at 87.7%, 86.9%, 85.9% and 86.7% in the last four years.

The Scottish Government is supporting Health and Social Care Partnerships to deliver more care in the community, and where possible at home, avoiding the need to go to hospital unnecessarily. This will allow hospitals to focus on the medical support that acute care can and should provide, and stays in hospital will be shorter. Alongside this we are working closely with health boards to support improved processes that will reduce the number of patients admitted to hospital that do not require admission and ensure that patients are discharged as soon as they are medically fit, avoiding unnecessary delays in hospital. As a result of this work, we have already delivered significant improvements in terms of reducing length of stay.

We will continue to engage in co-operative work with RCEM as we jointly seek to improve the delivery and effectiveness of our NHS.