Visegrád Four are among the best in Europe in the number of hospital beds

Budapest, Hungary. Photo: MTI

A recent study, conducted by NimbleFins, is rating European countries on the basis of their hospitals’ capacity, using some of the latest data. The study highlights which European countries might have the best healthcare infrastructure to deal with the rapidly growing number of COVID-19 patients, Kafkadesk reports.

Hospital beds per capita

The study first compares the number of hospital beds in European countries. It might be surprising, but Visegrád Group countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary) are all ranked high among the most well-prepared countries to face the rapidly growing number of people that need serious care.

Germany has the most hospital beds per capita in Europe, with 8 beds per 1,000 people. Austria follows right after, with 7.27 beds per 1,000 people, but the Visegrád countries put up a good fight against them. Hungary is placed 3rd, not much behind Austria, with 7.02 beds. The Czech Republic (6.63) and Poland (6.62) come right after, but Slovakia only placed 8th in this category. This means that 3 out of the Visegrád Four are in the top 5 countries with the highest number of hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants. Surprisingly, the other end of the spectrum includes the UK (2.54), Denmark (2.5), and Sweden (2.22) as the worst three countries in this category.

Hospital beds per 1,000 people aged 70 or older

The second category of the study ranks countries who are better equipped to care for their elderly population in particular. What they found is that Central European countries are better equipped to cater to their elderly than many other leading European countries. This is very important because older people are more prone to the severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Visegrád Group countries dominate this category even more than the previous one. As the chart shows, all of them are in the top 5. Only Austria was able to get a place among them as the 4th country with the most hospital beds per 1,000 people aged 70 or older. Hungary (54.9) placed 3rd this time as well.

It is interesting to note that Hungary’s elderly population constitutes 12.78% of the country’s current total population. The Visegrád Group countries are taking the prize everywhere, as they are in the top 5 countries with the lowest number of elderly people in their respective countries. To be exact, Hungary and the Czech Republic are tied for 5th place.