01.08.16
Children’s bed occupancy increases by 9.7% in one year
Bed occupancy rates and cancelled operations are both higher than they were this time last year as the NHS continues to struggle to cope with high rates of demand.
The latest monthly figures from the NHS show that the biggest increase in bed occupancy rates was in paediatric critical care, where bed occupancy was at 84.0% in June 2016, a 9.7% increase from 76.6% in June 2016.
Adult and neonatal bed occupancy rates had undergone smaller increases, from 82.7% to 83.7% and from 72.1% to 72.3%.
The number of urgent operations which had to be cancelled had also increased, from 266 to 355, although this represented a fall from May’s record high of 378.
Performance figures for the NHS show it has consistently failed to meet targets in areas such as ambulance call responses and A&E waiting times.
NHS England has now announced that it will abandon the national targets as a measure of trusts’ performance and replace them with fines if trusts fail to meet individual targets.
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