Mismatched, as the patients in the ward are? (3-8)
I believe the answer is:
ill-assorted
'mismatched' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'as the patients in the ward are?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'as' could be 'so' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'so' is found in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'are?' could be 'a' (short for 'are', historical unit of measurement) and 'a' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ill-assorted that I've seen before include "Unsuitably matched" , "Not matching" .)