Hospital beds nearly all occupied, say government figures Bed occupancy rates in hospitals are often well above 85%, the data says. Around 94% of hospital beds were occupied last month, well above the 85% limit that doctors regard as necessary to maintain safe, good quality care, government figures reveal. The statistics, which show that many hospitals had only a handful of empty beds at various times in November, appear to contradict the Department of Health's (DH) insistence on Monday that bed occupancy is usually at 85%. The DH's own "daily hospital situation reports," which measure how many beds are occupied during the busy winter months, show that on average 94% of all the beds reserved for general and acute medical patients were occupied, even though there has been no bad weather to prompt a spike in hospital admissions. Each day there were about 5,500 to 6,000 beds spare out of a total available of about 99,000 for those general and acute cases, though the exact numbers of each varied from day to day. The disclosure comes a day after a detailed study by Dr Foster, a healthcare information firm half-owned by the DH, warned that occupancy, which often reaches 90%, can be potentially "dangerous" to patients. Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had only a tiny number of its 800 general and acute beds available on several days last month, according to its "sitreps" data on the DH's website. For example, on 6 November it had 803 beds but 791 were occupied, leaving just 12 free. On that day there were 6,302 beds spare out of the 98,480 available for use that day - just 6.4%. The data reveals a similar picture of very few spare beds at other trusts in Gateshead, Northampton, Bedford, Kettering, Cambridge, Ipswich and East Kent. A DH spokeswoman said that the figures were not a concern because the service generally sticks to the 85% threshold. But it emerged that health secretary Jeremy Hunt's insistence that the NHS generally has 20,000 beds available refers to the NHS's total of 135,612 beds - which includes those used for maternity cases and patients with mental health problems - and not the 103,774 for general and acute medical patients. NHS leaders did not share the DH's relaxed view of hospitals exceeding the 85% threshold. Chris Hopson, chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network, which represents hospitals which are semi-independent of the DH, warned that Dr Foster's report "makes it clear that NHS trusts are working at full stretch with 90% of hospitals practically full nearly all year round. It is an uncomfortable position for the health service and could put patients at risk. Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said: "The study shows hospitals are under real strain and patients will suffer unless we are able to take swift action."