The contraction continues in French maternity hospitals, which had 14,803 beds as of December 31, 2020, against 15,057 a year earlier, according to data from Drees.
These 254 beds removed are only partly those of the three maternities closed last year, at the public hospital of Dinan (Côtes-d'Armor) and in private clinics of Albi (Tarn) and Narbonne (Aude) , which totaled 43 beds at the end of 2019.
The reduction in obstetrics capacity is not a new phenomenon: in 2000, there were more than 20,000 beds in 742 maternities.
Their number had even peaked at over 1,300 in the 1970s. Since that time, the "bed utilization rate" has fallen from 22 to 49 deliveries per year and the average length of stay has decreased from 8 to 4.6. days, specifies the Drees in its last "panorama of the health establishments".
This decrease is not specific to maternity hospitals: thousands of beds are removed each year in hospitals and clinics (-5,700 in 2020), which partly compensate for these closures by the creation of outpatient care places - without overnight stay.
© 2021 AFP