Hospital beds warning due to ageing population

Hundreds more hospital beds could be needed due to an ageing population in Northumberland, a health trust boss has warned.

The executive medical director of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said that unless people changed the way they accessed healthcare, an additional 242 beds would be required by 2040.

Dr Alistair Blair told a meeting of the Northumberland Health and Wellbeing Board, that the figure was "scary".

However, officials said they were looking at "preventative" measures to ensure people lived more of their lives in good health.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that Dr Blair told the meeting: "If we imagine somebody who is 85 comes into hospital, they spend more time in hospital with the same problem as somebody who is 65.

"They have got more needs, they are more complex and they take longer.

"It is quite scary - we need 242 new beds by 2040 which is equivalent to the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital.

"We're going to have to look very carefully at how we cope with the changing demographic."

Northumberland County Council's director of public health, Gill O'Neill, outlined some of the measures being taken.

She said: "We know that there are structural changes around housing and employment beyond individual behaviour change.

"20% of health outcomes are attributed to good homes; 35% are attributed to material deprivation and poverty.

"We are doing the right things, but they will take time to implement. 

"We will always need good quality healthcare, but hopefully that independence in the home is where we can all work together."

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