NHS beds: April 2019 to March 2020

Main points

• The average daily number of available beds in 2019-20 was 10,564.4, an increase of 15.5 (0.1%) compared to 2018-19.
• The average daily number of occupied beds in 2019-20 was 9,033.3, a decrease of 137.2 (1.5%) compared to 2018-19.
• The percentage occupancy of NHS beds in 2019-20 was 85.5%, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points compared to 2018-19.

Ten year change

• The long-term trend shows that the average number of beds has decreased, but the percentage occupancy has increased.
• The average daily number of available beds has fallen by 2,242.3 (17.5%) since 2009-10.
• The percentage occupancy of NHS beds has increased by 4.0 percentage points since 2009-10.

Note

The long term strategy for healthcare in Wales is to provide care closer to home by increasing community and GP services. More detail on this can be found in 'A healthier Wales: the long term plan for health and social care'.

Advances in healthcare technology have also resulted in shorter lengths of stay and more day surgery. Data on average length of stay is available from the Information and statistics website.