In July 1979, the Sunday Mirror published an article with the headline: “HOSPITALS AT CRISIS POINT: Jobs and beds to go in cash curbs.” In this article we explore the role of hospital beds in such public discussions of “crisis” within the British National Health Service (NHS). In the 1970s, the media and politicians paid increasing attention to bed numbers as an indicator of resource scarcity within the NHS. While this in part reflected a genuine trend, it was also a powerful narrative device. The hospital bed has become a cipher for NHS resourcing and resilience, but throughout the twentieth century, there has been a tension between stories of declining bed numbers as a sign of “crisis,” and declining bed numbers as a marker of more efficient, high-quality healthcare. This article will show that the hospital bed was an extremely important political device because it was imbued with rich social and cultural symbolism, and that stories of declining bed numbers were not as straightforward as they first appear. While discussions in the public sphere tended to focus on bed numbers and waiting times, discussions in the healthcare sector and among policymakers attended to what beds could—and should—do for both patients and staff. Public rhetoric about decline was less about the object itself, and more about the role of the hospital bed as a symbol of care and as a politically pertinent shorthand for the health of the NHS as an institution.

1979 年 7 月，《星期日镜报》发表了一篇文章，标题为：“处于危机点的医院：工作和床位将因现金限制而消失。在本文中，我们探讨了医院病床在英国国家医疗服务体系 （NHS） 内部关于“危机”的公开讨论中的作用。在 1970 年代，媒体和政客越来越关注床位数量作为 NHS 内部资源稀缺的指标。虽然这在一定程度上反映了一种真实的趋势，但它也是一种强大的叙事手段。医院病床已成为 NHS 资源和弹性的密码，但在整个 20 世纪，床位数量下降是“危机”的标志，而床位数量下降是更高效、更高质量医疗保健的标志，两者之间存在着紧张关系。本文将表明，医院病床是一个极其重要的政治工具，因为它充满了丰富的社会和文化象征意义，而床位数量下降的故事并不像它们最初看起来那么简单。虽然公共领域的讨论往往集中在床位数量和等待时间上，但医疗保健部门和政策制定者之间的讨论关注的是床位可以以及应该为患者和工作人员做些什么。关于衰落的公开言论与其说是物体本身，不如说是关于医院病床作为护理的象征和作为 NHS 作为一个机构健康的政治相关简写的作用。