Thousands of patients face long waits for treatment as hospitals brace themselves for a summer holiday rush.

Accident and emergency departments in Brighton, Worthing and Eastbourne are running at full stretch following the start of the season.

Hospital managers fear the increase in demand could lead to a further backlog of non-emergency surgery cases.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton is running well behind its waiting list targets.

A combination of unusually high numbers of patients, staff shortages and a lack of nursing home places has already caused the hospital problems.

Patients have had to spend hours in casualty or have had operations postponed at short notice.

Managers at Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, are concerned the constant pressure will affect services.

Trust board chairman Michael Whiting said: "It used to be that we would have a peak time over winter and then things would ease off but this year we have been extremely busy throughout."

A trust spokesman said: "The A&E department is working extremely hard and is managing to cope under difficult circumstances."

One of the main concerns is finding enough nursing and care home spaces for patients waiting to be discharged from hospital. Dozens of residential homes in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex have been closed over the past two years.

East Sussex County Council says lack of Government funding means it is difficult to afford places at private nursing homes and it is campaigning for more money.

There are often about 50 patients waiting to leave the Royal Sussex at any time, the equivalent of two hospital wards. The trust is working with Brighton and Hove social services to try to ease the problem.

At Eastbourne District General Hospital there are currently 70 people waiting.

A spokesman for the hospital, which has just had its busiest weekend in casualty so far this year, said: "We are managing to cope with accident and emergency at the moment but we are concerned about the difficulty in finding nursing home places.

"We have been at a peak all year. If we don't manage to reduce patient numbers soon, we will have a major problem when winter comes again."

Managers at Worthing Hospital said they are coping with demand, although department reviews are carried out regularly.