List of countries by hospital beds
The number of beds per people is an important indicator of the health care system of a country.[1] The basic measure focus on all hospital beds, which are variously split and occupied. The classic hospital beds are also called curative beds. For severe patients with risk of organ(s) failure, patients are provided intensive care unit beds (aka ICU bed) or critical care beds (CCB).
Among OECD countries, curative beds' occupancy rate average was 75%, from 94.9% (Ireland) to 61.6% (Greece), with half of the OECD's nation between 70% and 80%.[2]
In 2009, European nations, most of those that are also part of OECD, had an aggregated total of nearly 2.1 million acute beds and 73,585 (2.8%) critical care beds (CCB) or 11.5CCB/100,000 inhabitants.[3] Germany had 29.2, Portugal 4.2.[3]
Aging population leads to increased demand for CCB and difficulties to satisfy it, while both quantity of CCB and availability are poorly documented.[3]
Base capacity for lower-income countries is approximately 0.1 ICU beds per 100,000 citizens.[4][5]