A hospital trust is continuing to operate at the highest level of alert as staff work to free up beds.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton has been on “black alert” since Wednesday as it deals with demand.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is working with Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the South East Coast Ambulance Service to help with the flow of patients coming into and leaving the hospital.


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A trust spokeswoman said the hospital was not as busy as it had been earlier in the week, but remained on high alert so staff could concentrate on keeping the momentum going over the weekend.

The problem has been partly caused by the hospital having to care for high numbers of patients who are ready to be discharged but no nursing or rehabilitation bed can be found for them elsewhere in the city.

Work is under way to create more capacity in the hospital to speed up the process of patie-nts being treated and discharged.