HOSPITALS are continuing to experience one of the toughest winters on record as they battle to cope with a demand for services alongside a shortage of beds.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has missed its four hour accident and emergency waiting time target 16 times in the past 18 weeks due to overwhelming pressure.

The trust is currently operating on red alert status which is one step down from the most severe – black.

The problems are partly down to delays in finding places for patients who are ready to be discharged.

Bosses have been working with the Brighton and Hove City Council, the clinical commissioning group and the ambulance service to find ways to ease the bottleneck.

Improvements have included installing a new clinic by A&E for assessing older patients, recruiting more middle grade doctors to help treat patients more quickly and increasing staffing numbers in the trust’s discharge team.

Extra beds have also been provided in the community to help ease pressure.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, inset, and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath is not the only trust to struggle.

Western Sussex Hospitals and East Sussex Healthcare have also come under unprecedented pressure over the past four months.

A Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals spokesman said: “It has been an incredibly busy winter for emergency departments across the NHS and a number of trusts have been experiencing the same challenges as we have.

“The reasons for this are complex and involve services outside the hospital as well as within and we are working hard to address these to allow patients to be treated, admitted to hospital and discharged quicker.

“The public also have a part to play as it is reported nationally that around one in three people who are seen in A&E could have self-treated or been treated elsewhere by another health service.

“So we would ask the public to use our emergency department appropriately and to use alternative services for all non-emergency problems.”

In a letter to The Argus, the chairman of the British Medical Association, Mark Porter, said the system as a whole across the country was struggling to cope and the issue needed to be tackled properly by the Government.

He said: “Despite front-line staff working flat-out, the system can’t cope with the sheer number of patients coming through the door.

“It is starting to crack under the relentless pressure it’s facing and is not receiving the support it clearly needs.”