Nearly 6,800 beds in hospitals and clinics and 330 in critical care were lost in 2022. At the same time, the number of patients seen in outpatient settings is increasing with 2,600 additional places.
Published
Update
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2023/12/19/hopital-65821a52dc039306401895.jpg)
Fewer and fewer beds are available in hospitals and clinics to accommodate patients. This observation is made by the Directorate of Studies and Statistics, Drees, which is published on Wednesday December 19. In 2022, the number of available beds fell by 1.8% (after a drop of 1.4% in 2021). A greater reduction than what was observed before the Covid-19 crisis (-0.9% per year on average).
We count “a bed” when the patient is hospitalized for at least one night. In 2022, we lost nearly 6,800 beds in hospitals and clinics and 330 in critical care because the pressure caused by the epidemic has eased. As of December 31, 2022, the 2,976 health establishments in France have reception capacities which are divided between full hospitalization (374,000 beds) and partial hospitalization (85,000 places).
At the same time as this drop in the number of beds, the number of outpatient patients is increasing with 2,600 additional places in 2022. Treatment sessions or outpatient surgery have gained more than 17,000 places in ten years while 40 000 beds were eliminated during the same period.
Figures which can be explained both by the desire to develop the outpatient sector but also by the consequence of the shortage of manpower in health establishments with a lack of nurses, nursing assistants and doctors.
