The solution
A June 2025 BBC report from the Local Democracy Reporting Service describes Fit2Sit at King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, introduced in January to tackle overcrowding and improve patient flow. Medics identify patients who need assessment but do not need to lie on a trolley while they wait, and a separate room is set aside to hold 19 of them.
Lead nurse Julia Rose said the staff-suggested idea had dramatically reduced overcrowding. Richard Kemp, a divisional director of nursing, said clinicians can stay in consulting rooms and keep patients due an assessment in a private area; if an investigation is ongoing, a patient can go back to the waiting room, whereas previously all of them would have been in the majors space.
The scheme cost about £12,600, from the trust's Daffodil Volunteers fund, including £5,000 awarded from a Dragon's Den initiative in which hospital staff pitch their own ideas to managers.
Why it worked
Trolley spaces in majors were being used by patients who did not need to lie down.
A dedicated chair room gives assessed patients a place to wait.
Clinicians can keep working from consulting rooms rather than the crowded majors area.
The staff-suggested idea was cheap to fund through an internal pitch scheme.
What can be applied
Match the furniture to the need: when a scarce resource (trolleys) is used by people who do not need it, give those people a cheaper place.
Aftermath
The board heard waits for non-admitted patients fell by about 40 minutes, from 196 to 150. The average number in majors dropped from 61 to 35, and 89% of ambulance patients were offloaded within 30 minutes, versus 80% in December 2024.
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