1. Home
  2. Themes
  3. Health and care
  4. NHS Beds information in ...

NHS Beds information in Scotland

To provide an effective, safe and efficient service to patients, hospitals must balance the provision of staffed beds against anticipated demand. Historically, the total number of beds has been reducing in line with evolving models of healthcare provision that aim to reduce the frequency and duration of hospital admissions and improve the integration of health and social care services. This strategy aims to improve outcomes for patients and reduce the likelihood of future hospital admissions.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Beds information is sourced from aggregate data returns (ISD(S)1).
Author Secondary Care Team
Last Updated May 29, 2025, 11:38 (BST)
Created November 7, 2019, 11:04 (GMT)
Contact Address Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9EB
Subject Hospital Care
Frequency Quarterly
Time frame of data and timeliness Data from the quarter ending 31 December 2019 to the quarter ending 31 December 2024
Coverage Covers all NHS Boards in Scotland
Completeness PHS does not produce completeness levels for ISD(S)1. However, the Data Management team queries any unusual numbers with NHS Boards.
Accuracy https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/hospital-beds-information/resource/25bdc37b-4a77-4ff8-9b3a-edaba6e1c613
Continuity of data There are known issues with the quality of data presented. For more information, please see the ‘Continuity and accuracy of data’ section of the official data release information. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly-quarter-ending-31-december-2024/official-data-release-information/.
Concepts and definitions https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly-quarter-ending-31-december-2024/methods-used-to-produce-this-data-release/ https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly-quarter-ending-31-december-2024/glossary/ Further details are also available in the PHS Data Dictionary: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/resources-and-tools/health-intelligence-and-data-management/national-data-catalogue/data-dictionary/search-the-data-dictionary/. For detailed information on the data sources and clinical coding used within Hospital Care analysis, please refer to the SMR Datasets, ISD(S)1 data collection and Terminology Services web pages: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/resources-and-tools/health-intelligence-and-data-management/data-management-in-secondary-care-hospital-activity/scottish-morbidity-records-smr/what-are-the-smr-datasets/ https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/resources-and-tools/health-intelligence-and-data-management/data-management-in-secondary-care-hospital-activity/isd-s-1-hospital-activity/what-is-isd-s-1/ https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/resources-and-tools/health-intelligence-and-data-management/terminology-services-and-clinical-coding/
Disclosure The PHS Statistical Disclosure Protocol is followed. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/public-health-scotland-statistical-disclosure-protocol/public-health-scotland-statistical-disclosure-protocol-version-22/
Revision statement All revisions to data within this release are planned and are due to incomplete data returns at the time of publication. In general, these revisions have minimal effect on the statistics. If data providers discover that data submitted for publication are incorrect and/or missing or incomplete and is significant, this can be re-submitted and published in subsequent releases. Any changes will be highlighted within the publication release. Please see the PHS revisions policy for further details. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/public-health-scotland-statistical-revisions-guidance/public-health-scotland-statistical-revisions-guidance-version-3/
Official statistics designation Accredited official statistics. These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in November 2012. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘Accredited official statistics'. For more information, please see: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly-quarter-ending-31-december-2024/official-data-release-information/
Relevance and key uses of the statistics To compare areas and activity across Scotland and view trends over time. To allow NHS Board employees to compare activity levels nationally: for example, NHS clinical consultants interested in their specialty figures by NHS Board, NHS information managers planning capacity to assist in the development of service agreements between NHS Boards. To investigate the implications of common systemic diseases in Scotland as a basis for assessing health demands in the future. To assess whether patients were treated within or outside their own NHS Board. To allow members of the public to readily access information on the number of hospital admissions for specific diagnoses or procedures that may be of personal interest to them. To assist students and universities conducting medical studies for research purposes. To inform private companies interested in hospital activity levels in Scotland, such as pharmaceutical companies, consultancy companies employed by NHS Trusts in England, advertising/media companies on behalf of clients. To provide statistical information for political campaigns, e.g. to halt reductions in acute NHS beds.
Format CSV
Language English
Links

[Quarterly Publication] (https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly-quarter-ending-31-december-2024/) NHS England Outcomes and Performance, Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) [NHS Wales – Statistics and research](https://www.gov.wales/statistics-and-research Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics