Number of NHS beds falls by 5,000

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The number of beds available dropped by more than 5,000 across the country.

It means every day just over 121,000 general and acute beds can be used, compared with almost 127,000 this time last year - a drop of more than four per cent.

A total of 169 new daycasebeds were opened in the same period, the department of health's Bed Availability and Occupancy report found.

It comes after it was revealed that nearly 32,000 hospital beds have been lost since Labour won power - the equivalent to closing 60 average sized hospitals.