Extra beds are to be made available in the car park of a crisis-hit hospital facing unprecedented pressure on space.

A temporary 35-bed acute ward for surgical patients is to be built at Eastbourne District General Hospital (DGH).

It will be based in the corner of the staff car park for the next three years.

The plan aims to help East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, cut Government waiting time targets.

A report to Eastbourne Borough Council's planning committee said: "The trust has been successful thus far in meeting the NHS Plan waiting targets and has seen waiting times fall significantly.

"However, the trust board have recognised that they cannot achieve the plan targets without additional temporary ward capacity.

"Once the waiting times have reduced the core accommodation at Eastbourne should be adequate, as it is currently meeting referral demand."

The new building will result in 50 staff car park places being lost but more spaces will be made available on the temporary overspill car park.

The decision to approve the temporary ward comes at a time of high pressure on beds at the DGH in the past eight weeks.

From January an average of 97 per cent of beds have been occupied, well above what is nationally-recognised as an efficient level of between 82 and 87 per cent.

It led to more than 150 operations being cancelled on the day of surgery and many more a day or two in advance.

And it raised fears that an A&E department could temporarily close during times of extreme pressure.

Trust bosses said part of the problem was the number of beds being occupied by people fit for discharge but who have nowhere to go because of a lack of funding from social services.

Eastbourne councillor Maurice Skilton said: "That is not the fault of the hospital but it is the responsibility of social services to fund places for patients who are well enough for discharge."

The situation led to health minister Rosie Winterton accusing East Sussex County Council of deliberately blocking beds because it was cheaper to keep elderly people in hospital, a charge angrily denied by the authority.

The council responded by saying it had funded an extra 100 residential and nursing home places at a cost of £3 million.