Why hospital capacity is more complex than bed capacity
It’s easy and somewhat commonplace to liken healthcare to a widget factory, to boil it down to inputs and outputs; to capacity, productivity, and efficiency. I was reminded of this at last week’s international quality and safety forum, jointly hosted by BMJ and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The event was held at the ExCel, London’s homage to the austere corridor world of Blake’s 7 —and the site of a Nightingale hospital at the height of the covid pandemic. The Nightingale hospital was assembled in rapid time and added to hospital bed capacity. But that extra bed capacity went unused, because hospital capacity isn’t just about beds. It also requires, for example, trained staff and appropriate equipment. Counting the number of beds alone, it turns out, isn’t especially …