The average length of hospital stays for in-patients in public sector hospitals in Romania stood at a 7.5 days in 2014, down from 8.3 days in 2004, according to the latest available Eurostat data.

The decrease is in line with an EU-wide trend that saw the average length of hospital stays fall in most EU member states over the past decade. The average length of a hospital stay for in-patients ranged from 5.2 days in the Netherlands (2012 data) to 9.6 days in Croatia. Finland was above this range with an average of 10.5 days. Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom reported the most notable reductions in the average length of stay from 2004 to 2014. The EU countries that recorded an increase over the same period were Poland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Hungary.

The average length of stay for in-patients is calculated from the total number of nights spent in hospitals by in-patients divided by the total number of discharges.

The average 2014 length of stay for Romanian male in-patients was of 8 days, while that of women was of 7.1 days. Overall in Europe men generally spent a longer time than women in hospitals, although there were generally more female in-patients than male in-patients. The average length of in-patient stays tended to be shortest for children aged 1–9 and highest for people aged 85 or over.

At the same time, the country’s discharge rates for in-patients and day care patients in public sector hospitals was one of the highest in Europe, alongside Ireland, Austria and Belgium. Romania discharged a total of 4.2 million public hospitals in-patients in 2014, compared to 4.9 million in 2004. In 2014, this meant a total of 21,269 in-patients per 100,000 inhabitants compared to 22,724 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2004. The lowest discharge rate was in Cyprus with a rate of 9,500 per 100 000 inhabitants.

The Eurostat data refers to public sector hospitals.

According to data presented by zf.ro, there were 187 private hospitals in Romania in 2016, but their total capacity was of only 6,600 beds, compared to 125,000 in public hospitals.

Private healthcare operators in Romania have more than one million subscribers for healthcare services, 20 years after this market was launched. The value of the subscription-based healthcare services has reached EUR 50 million in 2016.

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editor@romania-insider.com