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Anon 2:03 has made the point - it's not as simple as 'empty beds'. Weekends & overnight, patients are shuttled from A&E/assessment into 'any empty bed' just to alleviate the pressure - but this leads to massive inefficiency in terms of doctors ward rounds involving extra 'off ward' patients, patients being in the wrong care setting, and the constant 'juggling of beds' as porters and nursing staff move patients around the hospital site just to ensure the patient eventually ends up in the right unit.

I've experienced this so many times as a patient - usually 2 to 3 days of 'warehousing' before getting to the correct ward and treatment commencing.
As someone already said - our drive for constant unrealistic efficiency is actually making the service more inefficient, but it's being masked by poor KPIs.

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