The table presents data on healthcare provision in three European countries over a 20-year period, from 1980 and 2000.
Overall, Austria and Sweden showed growth in both the number of doctors and hospital beds over the period, while France experienced declines in these areas. Regarding hospital stays, Austria’s figure stayed unchanged, France’s steadily decreased, and Sweden’s numbers went down before rising again by 2000.
Looking first at the number of physicians, Austria increased slightly from 0.8 per 1,000 people in 1980 to 1.0 by 2000. Sweden also showed a mild upward trend, rising from 3.6 to 3.8 over the same period, despite a dip in 1990. In contrast, France had the opposite pattern, where the figure almost halved from 2.4 in 1980.
A similar contrast is seen in the provision of hospital beds. Austria recorded the largest rise, from 1.4 to 3.7 beds per 1,000 people between 1980 and 2000. Sweden, however, remained relatively stable, fluctuating only slightly between 6.4 and 6.9. On the other hand, France experienced a sharp decline, dropping from 0.2 to 0.7 beds during the same period. 1980 to just 1.3 in 2000.
Turning to the average length of hospital stays, Austria’s figure remained unchanged at 18 days across all three years. France, meanwhile, showed a consistent downward trend from 9 days in 1980 to just 5 days in 2000. Sweden, by contrast, declined from 23 days in 1980 to 18 in 1990, before rising again to 21 in 2000.