A “comedy” video featuring doctors dancing in a crisis-hit emergency unit has been slammed by furious web critics.

Medics at the Royal Sussex County Hospital filmed themselves joking around in the A&E department as part of a charity show arranged by junior staff.

Posted online, the video shows senior consultants and surgeons riding medical trolleys, using drip stands as microphones and performing mass dance routines in an operating theatre.

One senior medic said it was important that under-pressure staff were "occasionally allowed to let their hair down"' and insisted the video had been made outside normal working hours.

But the film has attracted fury online, with some outraged web users questioning whether making the video was appropriate given the troubles facing the county’s largest emergency unit.

One person wrote: “I’m all for charity work but totally disagree with this”, while another commented : “They obviously have too much time on their hands.”

Someone else posted: “No wonder it’s Brighton A&E with the longest waiting times in the country.”

But other viewers said they supported the video, with one describing the dance routine as “a great display of team spirit”.

Last winter, the A&E department descended into chaos as doctors struggled to cope with the number of patients.

Earlier this year Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt suggested staff at the troubled hospital needed to “improve productivity” if standards were to improve.

One of the consultants who took part defended the film, insisting it had not been made during work time.

Clinical lead Paul Wallman, one of the most senior staff in A&E, said money earned from the comedy revue would go towards helping sick children.

He said: “The important thing is that we take what we do extremely seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Light moments like this are important – especially in times of stress.

“All the people in the video were either off work altogether or there after their night shift had ended.

“Anything that was filmed was done during the early hours of the morning when we are not at our busiest. We wouldn’t ever have allowed it during normal working hours.”

It is not the first time the hospital has done a charity video, with staff performing Amarillo in 2011: