Hospitals face constant pressure to balance bed capacity across departments. Demand forecasts show seasonal variations, with some departments consistently over capacity while others remain underutilised.

Patients can still be accommodated - but often as guest patients, placed in a bed outside their own department. For example, a cardiac patient may stay in an orthopaedic ward. While workable, this leads to lower quality of care: nurses may not have the right training, specialists lose time travelling between wards, and overall patient experience suffers.

Leadership wanted to understand whether reallocating beds - or even departments - across the hospital could reduce guest patients and better align supply with demand.