In the past few weeks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of hospital bed
numbers has been once again in the spotlight. The overwhelming majority of health
politicians agree that in healthcare, a shift of focus is necessary from specific secondary
care to more cost-effective outpatient care and one-day surgery. In line with this trend, in
the Central and Eastern European region (except Poland), hospital bed capacity per
hundred thousand inhabitants decreased in 17 years until 2017.