Which Regions of England Have the Most Hospital Beds for COVID-19?

Contents

• Number of hospital beds in England
  • Hospital beds per person
  • Hospital beds per person (over 70s population)
• COVID-19 fatality rate by age
• How old are populations by region?
• How does the UK compare?

Number of Hospital Beds in England

The total number of overnight beds has been declining for years, dropping by 56.8% from 1988 to 2020. By 2020, there were 128,329 overnight hospital beds in England, 101,598 of which were for General & Acute care (where COVID-19 patients are more likely to be cared for within existing infrastructure)—the rest are designated for specialist care like Maternity and Mental Illness.

The number of General & Acute hospital beds to treat COVID-19

How are these beds distributed around England, and which regions are now best prepared to serve their residents who need to be hospitalised for COVID-19? Let's take a look. Hospital bed numbers in this study reflect "General & Acute" beds, not specialist beds (e.g., cancer, maternity).

Hospital Beds by Region of England

The North West and the South East have the most General & Acute hospital beds in England—15,212 and 14,637 beds, respectively. The regions with the fewest hospital beds are the North East (6,122) and East Midlands (6,785).

But we need to consider the population of each region, too, because areas with more people naturally need more beds. Now let's compare the number of hospital beds per person.

Hospital Beds per 10,000 People

In England there are 17.2 overnight hospital beds for every 10,000 people, but this rate varies by region. The area with the fewest hospital beds per person is London, with just 13.9 beds per 10,000 residents. The East Midlands also faces a relative shortage of beds, with 14.1 beds per 10,000 people. The two regions with the best supply of beds are the North East and the North West, with 23 and 20.9 hospital beds per 10,000 people, respectively.

Are the numbers really as bad as they look for London compared to the rest of England? Not necessarily. In London, the average age is just 36.4 and only 8.4% of the population is aged 70 or higher (see our age statistics below)—given what we know about fatality rates so far (that older people are far more likely to require hospitalisation), it makes sense to consider age of the population.

Hospital Beds per 10,000 People Aged 70+

In England, there are 7,356,660 people aged 70 years or older—this means there are 130.7 hospital beds on average per 10,000 people over the age of 70 in England. But this rate is very different from region to region. Areas with a higher proportion of older residents will struggle even more with bed shortages, because older people are more at risk from COVID-19. How well can each region care for its older population in particular?

Let's do the same analysis as above, but this time divide the number of hospital beds by the number of people aged 70+. The East Midlands has just 102.2 hospital beds per 10,000 people aged 70+, which is the fewest in England. At the opposite end of the spectrum in London, with 165.5 hospital beds per 10,000 people at least 70 years old. So while London has the fewest beds per person (all age groups), fewer older residents mean the area has a relatively strong supply of beds for the older people who may need them most.

Methodology

For this study, we analysed data on hospital beds, populations and COVID-19 fatality rates from the NHS, ONS and Worldometer.

Hospital bed numbers in this study reflect "General & Acute" beds, not specialist beds (e.g., cancer, maternity). First we analysed hospital bed data from the NHS, grouping hospitals by region. To find the number of suitable overnight NHS hospital beds that could treat COVID-19, we counted beds designated as "General & Acute" from general and university hospitals. We included "General & Acute" beds but excluded beds designated for mental illness, learning disabilities and maternity, because these beds are likely not going to be made available for COVID-19 care. We also excluded certain types of hospitals and centres that focus on one specialty only, such as children's, orthopaedics, cancer, heart, eye, mental health, plastic surgery, etc.

Then we used regional population estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to calculate a hospital bed per 10,000 people rate for each region of England (dividing the number of hospital beds by the local population). Next, we did the same thing, but instead of using the total population in a region we used the number of people aged 70 or older. This gave us a rate of hospital beds per 10,000 people aged 70+. This metric is important because older people are much more prone to requiring hospitalisation.

Sources

Supporting Data

Fatality Rates of COVID-19

While younger people can and do die of COVID-19, fatality rates are significantly higher for older people. According to the latest data available, the fatality for those age 70-79 is 8.0% and for age 80+ is 14.8%. Compare this to the fatality rate for under 40s of 0.2%. This means that over 80s are 74X more likely to die than those under age 40.

While younger people can die of COVID-19, fatality rates are significantly higher for older people

Age Statistics by Region

How many older people are there in the UK? It's important to understand this, since older people face a higher risk of hospitalisation from COVID-19. In England, 13.1% of the population is 70 years of age or older—but stats vary by region. Not surprisingly, London has the smallest proportion of over 70s: 8.4%.

More than 13% of the English population is over age 70

How Does the UK Compare?

Even the regions of England with the highest number of hospital beds per person are arguably very short of beds. The UK has a fraction of the bed supply infrastructure of many other countries. The following data reflects all hospital beds in a country (e.g., including maternity beds), not just General & Acute beds.

For example, Spain and Italy have around 20% more hospital beds per person than England. Korea and Japan have around 5X as many hospital beds per person than England.

The supply of hospital beds in the UK is weak compared to many other countries

Number of beds by Hospital

Here is the original raw data on General & Acute beds in the NHS, before we excluded the data from specialist centres (e.g., children's hospitals, cancer centres, mental health clinics, etc.). Find the number of General & Acute hospital beds in hospitals in your local area.