Should emergency departments move patients to other wards even when there's no bed space available?

Should emergency departments move patients to other wards even when there's no bed space available? With emergency departments beyond capacity throughout the country, some hospitals have been trialling an approach of moving a set number of patients into inpatient wards each hour, regardless of bed availability. Is this a viable solution to the problems faced throughout the system? Dr Louella Vaughan assesses the evidence and argues for further caution before rolling out such a model. Nuffield Trust