[w14]

One area that I think is interesting to look at, aside from overall budget, is bed capacity and nursing staff numbers.

According to Statista:

Bed capacity is significantly lower than at the turn of the century, but more damage was done there by Labour than the Tories [1].

The numbers of nurses has steadily increased in the last twenty years under both Labour and the Tories [2].

So if there are many more nurses per bed than there were twenty years ago, why is patient safety one of the issues they are currently in dispute with the government over?

I don't know the answer to this, but I think we need to know. It is, like teachers, that nurses are spending so much time on non-clinical bureaucracy that the don't have time to nurse?

[1] - https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/4302/M6SgVh.png

[2] - https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/7041/40e6JF.png

[DanBC]

You reduce bed numbers by pushing less sick people out of hospital. This means that your two 6-bed bays now don't have 4 people who need minimal nursing, 6 people who need moderate nursing, and 2 people who need high level nursing. It means you have 8 people who need moderate level nursing and 4 people who need high level nursing.