Quarterly Hospital Beds Information

In order 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 which 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.

The residence data files relate to activity by NHS Board of residence. The treatment data files relate to activity by NHS Board of treatment. ISD(S)1 also does not record information on the deprivation, age or sex of patients.

All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found on the ISD Scotland Hospital Care Website. Further information on hospital activity can be found in the recent quarterly publication.

The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

Data and Resources

Beds by Board of Treatment and SpecialtyCSV
Quarterly information on hospital beds. Size: 3.33MB
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Publication NotesCSV
Publication notes in relation to data accuracy and general observations...
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Additional Info

Field	Value
Source	Beds information is sourced from aggregate data returns (ISD(S)1)
Author	Secondary Care Team
Version	1.0
Last Updated	November 24, 2020, 11:04 (GMT)
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 is published from quarter ending 30 June 2015 to quarter ending 30 June 2020.
Coverage	Covers all NHS Boards in Scotland since Quarter 1 2015/16.
Completeness	PHS do not produce completeness levels for ISD(S)1, however, the Data Management team query any unusual numbers with NHS Boards. Note that estimates are applied by PHS to missing data in the ISD(S)1 dataset used for beds and return outpatient figures.
Accuracy	https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/inpatient-and-daycase-activity/resource/a15a1878-3203-4506-90ac-586bd672545d
Continuity of data	Change to Council Area/NHS Board codes:There has been two minor boundary changes to council area since early 2018. As a result, the following geographies are impacted and new 9-digit codes have been generated: Council Areas, Electoral Wards, Health Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, Police Divisions, Fire and Rescue, Postcodes and LAU1. Further details on these changes and the affected geography codes are detailed in the Geography Codes and Labels dataset metadata: https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/geography-codes-and-labels. Hospital/location code changes: Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary (Y104H) moved location in December 2017, and activity is now recorded under a new code, Y146H. The name remains “Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary”. To ensure that no activity is missed, and to allow trends to be presented, the two hospital codes Y146H and Y104H (for SMR01 and SMR00 activity) are combined in our analyses under Y146H. The old site (Y104H) still exists and is now a treatment centre named “Mountainhall Treatment Centre”. This new activity will be reported separately under a new code (Y177C) which came into effect in December 2017. From 1st December 2018, Stirling Community Hospital closed along with all its wards and the Bellfield Centre opened. The Bellfield Centre provides short-term inpatient care, assessment or rehabilitation for people who require additional support following an operation or illness. Within the Bellfield Centre there is one new NHS ward, the Wallace Suite. Most of the beds are converting to partnership controlled intermediate beds. This may impact on NHS Forth Valley’s bed figures. Balfour Hospital (R101H) moved location between April and November 2019. Both the hospital name and code have changed to “The Balfour” and R103H respectively. For inpatient and beds activity, both hospital codes have been added together. For outpatient activity, both hospital locations are reported separately whilst this move is still in transition.
Concepts and definitions	Please see https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Beds/ and the Methods and Glossary sections within the report which accompanies this publication. https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/24-november-2020/glossary/ https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/24-november-2020/methods-used-to-produce-this-data/ Further details are also available on the Health and Social Care Data Dictionary: https://www.ndc.scot.nhs.uk/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.isdscotland.org/Products-and-Services/Terminology-Services/.
Disclosure	The PHS protocol on Statistical Disclosure Protocol is followed. https://beta.isdscotland.org/media/4191/public-health-scotland-statistical-disclosure-control-protocol.pdf
Revision statement	All revisions to data within this release are planned and are due to incomplete data returns at the time of publication. All tables will be revised annually. In general, these revisions have minimal effect on the statistics. If data providers discover that data submitted for publication is incorrect, and/or missing/incomplete and is significant, this can be re-submitted and published in subsequent releases. Any changes will be highlighted within the notes on the affected table. Please see the PHS revisions policy for further details. https://beta.isdscotland.org/media/4106/isd-revisions-policy-v04.pdf
Official statistics designation	The UK Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, available on the UK Statistics Authority website. http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice
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, e.g. 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 outwith 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. 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.
Format	CSV
Language	English
Links	Quarterly Publication NHS England Outcomes and Performance, Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) NHS Wales Hospital Activity - NHS Beds Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics and Research