The health crisis and the "whatever it takes" do not seem to have mitigated the fall in the number of hospital beds, quite the contrary.

According to the latest study from the Ministry of Health, published on Tuesday, more than 4,300 full hospital beds were closed in 2021 in French health establishments.

At the same time, 2,700 partial hospitalization places have been created.

In addition to the Covid epidemic, which again led to the closure of wards and double rooms last year, hospital capacities have also suffered from "staff constraints that do not allow the beds to be maintained", explains the statistics department. social ministries (DREES).

As of December 31, the 2,984 public and private hospitals had exactly 382,587 full hospital beds, or 4,316 less in one year.

A provisional figure down slightly compared to 2020 (-4,900) but still higher than the decreases observed before the health crisis.

21,000 beds cut in five years, or "the desire to reorganize the offer"

In total, more than 21,000 beds were eliminated over the period from the end of 2016 to the end of 2021, corresponding in large part to Emmanuel Macron's first five-year term.

Twice as much as under his predecessor François Hollande (-10,000) but significantly less than during the mandate of Nicolas Sarkozy (-37,000).

This long-term trend “reflects the desire to reorganize the offer in a context of outpatient shifts”, an expression used to designate the growing share of care without overnight stays in the hospital, particularly in surgery.



The number of “day” hospital places has also continued to rise: 2,743 were opened in 2021, bringing their total to 82,502, i.e. 9,000 more in five years.

Hospitalization at home also recorded a clear increase in its capacity, by 6.8% after a jump of more than 10% in 2020. With 22,800 patients "able to be treated simultaneously on the territory", this mode of care now represents "7.6% of total capacity in full hospitalization" excluding psychiatry, compared to 2.1% in 2006.

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Hospital: 5,700 beds were cut in 2020

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Hospitals: The number of beds down by only 2% compared to 2019, according to a survey by the Ministry of Health

  • Health

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Ministry of Health

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