Busy Brighton hospital continues to feel the pressure (From The Argus)

Busy Brighton hospital continues to feel the pressure

1:20pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News By Siobhan Ryan

A hospital is continuing to work under pressure following a busy weekend.

Managers at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton said staff were coping with demand but they were still dealing with high numbers of patients.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, has been struggling to cope following a surge in patients in recent weeks.

Managers have not been able to discharge patients quickly enough to ensure beds become free for new people coming in, leading to long delays for some people in A&E.

Latest figures for the week ending February 24 show 76 patients waited between four and 12 hours in the department for a bed to become available while another four waited more than 12 hours.

The delays led to the trust declaring a major incident for the first time in five years.

This has now been scaled down to the second highest level of alert.

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