The National Health Service in Scotland Quarterly Bulletin
No. 7: April 1998 to March 1999

Acute Hospital Activity

Table 1 summarises the key changes in acute activity in 1998-99 compared with last year.

• The overall growth of 1.6% (18,934) in the number of acute inpatient and day case episodes is much lower than expected, and is lower than the increases of 3% to 5% seen in recent years.
• The 4.9% increase in day cases in 1998-99 compared with the same period last year is also lower than the growth of around 10% that we have seen in recent years.
• The average length of stay in 1998-99 remained constant at around 5.1 days. This compares with slight year on year reductions in recent years.
• The percentage occupancy (that is the percentage of available staffed beds that were occupied by inpatients during the year) was 1.2% higher in 1998-99 as compared to the previous year.
• Throughput (that is the average number of inpatient discharges treated per bed per year) was 1.4% higher in 1998-99 as compared to the previous year. This is much lower than the year on year increase seen last year of 5.1%.
• The level of staffed beds in acute specialties was 1.4% lower in 1998-99 as compared to the previous year.
• There was a slight increase (0.7%) in the number of new outpatient attendances in 1998-99 compared with the same period last year.
• There was a slight increase (0.6%) in the number of new attendances at Accident and Emergency in 1998-99 compared with the same period last year.

Table 1: Trends in Acute Activity and Bed Use

Source: ISD(S)1 and SMR00. Note 1: All sources of referral

For certain medical procedures, and depending on the circumstances of the individual, it is considered good practice to treat the patient as a day case (where they are admitted, treated and discharged on the same day) rather than admit them to hospital wards for several days.

Chart 6: Percentage of Patients Treated as Day Cases for Acute Specialties

As chart 6 shows the percentage of cases being treated as day cases has been increasing steadily since the 1980's. Between 1988 and 1998 this increased from 28.7% to 58.6%.