The available information is shown in the following table but comes with a heavy caveat that definitions have changed over the years and a new category of ‘Community Hospitals’ has been introduced. These changes will have a significant effect on the numbers in categories and direct comparison year on year therefore will not be valid.
General acute hospitals Multiservice hospitals Short-term non-acute hospitals Long-stay hospitals Specialist hospitals Community hospitals Total 2000-01 392 — 390 394 — — 1,176 2001-02 335 165 384 400 161 — 1,445 2002-03 312 209 376 426 192 — 1,515 2003-04 280 231 397 364 176 — 1,448 2004-05 290 221 414 331 170 — 1,426 2005-06 277 237 413 343 168 — 1,438 2006-07 270 139 252 295 174 404 1,534 2007-08 258 135 229 294 161 402 1,479 2008-09 274 135 219 273 185 428 1,514
Data on national health service sites were not collected by the estates related information collection before 2000-01. Data on multi-service hospitals and specialist hospitals were not collected before 2001-02 and community hospital data were not collected before 2006-07. With the introduction of additional categories, hospitals in one category may have been moved to another.
Until 2003-04, the provision of these data was mandatory for all NHS organisations. From 2004-05 onwards, provision of these data was mandatory for NHS organisations but voluntary for NHS foundation trusts, therefore, the data for this period may be incomplete.
The data are presented as provided by the NHS and have not been amended centrally. Any inherent errors in the data will not have been corrected and questions regarding their accuracy should be addressed to the organisations concerned.
Since 2000, 118 new hospital schemes have opened.