More than 500 hospital operations were cancelled at the last minute in just three months.

Figures published by the Department of Health show hospitals in Sussex were calling off large numbers of routine operations for non-clinical reasons.

The cancellations, which happened between April and June this year, were mainly caused by patients blocking beds because no nursing or care homes could be found for them and an unexpected increase in emergency cases.

The highest number of cancellations were at East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Eastbourne District General Hospital and The Conquest Hospital in St Leonards.

The trust called off 188 operations but this was an improvement on the three months before, when 208 were cancelled.

On one day, every trolley and bed at Eastbourne was occupied, forcing ambulances to divert patients to The Conquest.

Extra money was found from East Sussex social services to try to ease the trust's bed blocking crisis but the trust is now facing a financial crisis as it needs to save £17 million by the end of March to balance its books.

Managers have not ruled out possible job cuts but say this will be a last resort.

The news elsewhere in Sussex is mixed.

The county's largest hospital trust, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, cancelled 159 operations, a slight rise on the previous three months when 154 were called off.

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare, which runs Crawley Hospital, cancelled 97 operations compared to 158 for the first quarter.

Worthing and Southlands Hospitals also had a slight drop, cancelling 65 operations compared to 71 previously.

Nationally the number of cancelled operations fell from 21,566 to 15,648.

A Department of Health spokesman said the figures were dropping steadily over the last four years.

He said: "There were significantly less cancelled operations than in the same period in 2001 and since then the proportion of cancelled operations has been going down, even against a backdrop of an increasing number of operations.

"It is inevitable that, as the NHS carries out more operations, the possibility of cancellations does increase.

"However, one cancellation is one too many and as the NHS speeds up access to treatment it is working hard to ensure operations are carried out on time."