Episode 2

In this episode, with nearly all of St Mary's 297 beds occupied, the hospital must discharge patients before any new ones can be admitted. While the hospital tries to discharge patients, new ones continue to arrive. Peter Lai, a 60-year-old retired software engineer, arrives at the hospital for a life-saving operation on an aortic aneurysm in his chest. St Mary's is a centre of excellence for vascular surgery and this is one of the biggest operations they carry out. It has taken two months to coordinate the diaries of the expert team, led by consultant Colin Bicknell. But unless the hospital staff can clear a bed for him, Peter's operation won't go ahead.

Discharge nurse Sister Alice Markey is trying to discharge a homeless Polish man, but until she can find a translator to explain what will happen to him when he leaves St Mary's, the man will remain in a hospital bed. Alice says: 'The pressure that's on the NHS, you worry about it because the walls are not elastic and the demand is high... But you have to look after the patients, whether they come from Buckingham Palace or the park bench.'

Another patient the hospital needs to discharge is 91-year-old Dolly. After breaking her ankle, Dolly has been in hospital for three weeks while she waits for a place in a rehabilitation centre. Dolly laments: 'They're so short of beds... but then I have to have somewhere to go where I'm going to be safe. I feel guilty because I've got nowhere else to go.'.