More than 5,700 full hospital beds were closed in 2020 in French health establishments, which at the same time created nearly 1,400 partial hospital beds, according to a study by the ministry of health published Wednesday, September 29.
The Covid-19 has not interrupted the reduction in hospital capacity. On the contrary, the health crisis has partly amplified bed closures. Sign of this decline, France now has less than 3,000 hospitals and clinics. “Under the effect of reorganizations and restructuring”, 25 public and private establishments closed last year, explains the direction of research, studies, evaluation and statistics (Drees, attached to the Ministry of Health).
“Ambulatory shift”
The 2,983 structures still open at the end of 2020 had exactly 386,835 full hospital beds, or 5,758 fewer in one year – compared to the latest report for 2019, published in July by the same statistical department. This drop is “A little more marked” than in previous years, which “Could be explained by the context of the epidemic”, with “Many double rooms transformed into single rooms to limit contagion”, as well as massive deprogramming to reallocate nursing staff in critical care services.
The number of resuscitation beds, which varied greatly with the waves of Covid, also ended the year up by 14.5% (or around 6,200). This did not prevent the underlying trend of the “Ambulatory shift” – on the bottom of “Staff constraints” – to continue: 1,369 places of hospitalization ” by day “ were opened in 2020, bringing their total number to 80,089.
At the same time, home hospitalization experienced a “Particularly lively growth” by 10.8%, or 21,276 patients “Can be taken care of simultaneously on the territory”. This type of care thus represented, at the end of 2020, “7% of total capacity in full hospitalization” excluding psychiatry, against 2.1% in 2006.