The given table provides information about medical care in Austria, France, and Sweden over a 20-year period from 1980 to 2000.
Overall, Sweden consistently outperformed the other two countries across all three categories. While the number of hospital beds rose in every nation, both the number of physicians and the average length of hospital stays generally decreased, especially in France and Austria.
Moving onto further details, in terms of physicians per 1000 people, Sweden led in all three years, starting at 3.6 in 1980 and ending at 3.8 in 2000, despite a slight dip in 1990. In contrast, France experienced a continuous decline, from 2.4 to 1.3, and Austria had the lowest figures, increasing modestly from 0.8 to 1.0. Regarding hospital beds, Sweden again led with an increase from 6.4 to 6.9 beds per 1000 people. Austria showed a notable rise from 1.4 to 3.7, surpassing France, whose growth was slower, from just 0.2 to 1.6 over the two decades.
Looking at the average hospital stay, Austria experienced the most dramatic change, dropping from 18 days in 1980 to just 6 in 1990, then slightly increasing to 8 in 2000. France’s figures declined steadily from 9 to 5 days over the same period. By contrast, Sweden’s figure decreased in 1990 but rebounded to 21 days in 2000, which was still the highest among the three countries.