Hospital Beds by Country 2024

How many hospital beds a country has can affect its healthcare system in a variety of ways. Number of hospital beds relative to the population affects how quickly patients are able to get care, the price of healthcare, how accessible healthcare is to the general population, and how prepared that country is to address the needs of its citizens during a disaster.

Generally speaking, it is a sign of a functioning healthcare system to have an adequate number of hospital beds for its population. Often, hospital beds are dispersed unevenly, with more hospital beds in urban centers than in rural areas.

What Happens When A Hospital Runs Out Of Beds?

Hospitals in the United States are required to have plans that can be put into place when a surge of patients runs down the hospital bed vacancy. These plans involve rationing care to patients who need it most, setting up extra beds, installing beds in areas of the hospital that are not usually reserved for patient care (like the cafeteria), transferring patients to other hospitals.

When this happens, hospitals also put elective procedures on hold. Elective procedures are not necessarily procedures that are not important, they are simply procedures that can be scheduled in advance. The opposite of elective procedures is emergency procedures - these are procedures that must happen immediately.

Elective procedures can include knee replacements and breast cancer surgery. They can also include cosmetic procedures. The hospital will decide which procedures are allowed to be conducted, and which procedures are not.

In many locations, elective procedures were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospital beds were held open to be available for people who were infected with COVID.