As reported in the last blog entry, Ontario lost 614 hospital beds in 2010, about 2% of the total number of beds. As of 2010, there were 30,810 hospital beds. (See here for more.)
Also in 2010, the average number of inpatients on any given day was 30,184 (See here for more.).
Putting these figures together, hospital bed occupancy was 97.9% in 2010.
This very high level goes a long way to account for the cancelled surgeries, overflowing emergency rooms, and ambulance offload delays that are now choking-up our hospitals.
It also is way, way higher than the 85% bed occupancy target Britain has established for fighting hospital acquired infections.
When will Ontario establish a target for lower bed occupancy to reduce hospital superbug infections and backlogs? There is precious little sign of it now.
dallan@cupe.ca
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