The Federal Statistical Office has analyzed the number of German hospital beds in 2018 compared to 1991 and found that their number has decreased by 25 percent. Whereas in 1991, according to the analysis, there were 666,000 beds in a total of 2,411 hospitals and clinics, the breakdown of 2018 showed 498,000 beds in 1,925 clinics. At the same time, this means that in 2018 there was only an average of 600 hospital beds available for 100,000 inhabitants, which, however, depending on the federal state, only had an occupancy rate between 73.7 percent (Saxony-Anhalt) and 84.1 percent (Berlin). The average for the whole of Germany is therefore 77 percent. Most beds are available in Thuringia and Bremen with 740 per 100,000 inhabitants, the fewest in Baden-Württemberg with 500 and Lower Saxony with 530. Whereas public providers still predominated in 1991 with 46 percent, by 2018 this figure had fallen to just 28 percent. The shift was clearly in favor of the private sector, which accounted for the largest number of hospitals with 37 percent in 2018. In 1991, they accounted for only 15 percent of all hospital operators. There has been little change among non-profit organizations such as churches, foundations and associations, which increased from 39 percent in 1991 to 34 percent in 2018. However, every second hospital bed (48 percent) is still in public hospitals because they are on average twice as large as independent hospitals and three times as large as private hospitals. The German Federal Statistical Office has also found out that the number of medical staff in terms of full-time equivalents has increased by 73 percent over the last 27 years to 165,000 in 2018. In the area of nursing care, however, no major progress can be seen. Here, there were 326,000 full-time employees in 1991 and only about 5,000 more in 2018. Intensive care bed capacities were also examined but before the corona pandemic. Until two years ago, an increase of 36 percent was recorded. Whereas in 1991, Germany still had more than 20,200 intensive care beds spread over all the federal states, before the severe infections with Sars-CoV-2 viruses, there were 27,500 beds with intensive care measures.
Source: aerzteblatt.de