A HOSPITAL became so busy over the winter its morgue ran out of space.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was under intense pressure with an unprecedented demand from patients and a shortage of available beds.

It was among a number trusts across Sussex and throughout the country which struggled to cope with delays in discharging patients and long waits in accident and emergency departments.

Information revealed through a Freedom of Information request by the Labour Party found the trust reported operational problems eight times between November and March.

On one day the Brighton trust said the local emergency care system was under significant, sustained pressure and the mortuary at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton “was at capacity”.

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust experienced an operational problem on 17 occasions.

It reported higher than predicted emergency department attendances, an increase in delayed transfers of care and a high bed occupancy rate.

Western Sussex Hospital NHS Trust recorded 23 incidents due to “sustained demand and lack of bed capacity”.

Brighton Kemptown Labour parliamentary candidate Nancy Platts said: “The staff at the hospital are doing a fantastic job in what is clearly very difficult and challenging circumstances.

“We discover today not only was our hospital struggling to cope with the sick in our community, it couldn’t cope with the number of people dying.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals said: “The privacy and dignity of our deceased patients is extremely important to us and we do everything we can to try to ensure each individual is cared for in an appropriate and compassionate way.

“Unfortunately, mortality rates across the whole country were high during the winter months and there was a period in December and January where our mortuary at the Royal Sussex was at capacity.

“To help us cope with this we had contingency plans in place which involved using additional space at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

“We are planning to build a new mortuary at the Royal Sussex as part of the hospital redevelopment programme which will help us continue to give our deceased patients the highest standards of care.”

Struggling

Hospitals across Sussex are continuing to struggle to cope because of high numbers of bed blocking patients.

This is partly due to the large number of mainly elderly people coming in who need a lot of care when they are admitted to hospital and tend to stay longer than younger patients.

There are sometimes delays when they are discharged because of a shortage of available beds in the community or a package of support in their own home is not available yet.

This has a knock-on effect on other departments such as A&E and can lead to cancelled operations.