A stash of Ecstasy pills and heroin has been found in a hospital staff changing room.

Detectives are investigating after a box containing the class A drugs was discovered at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Eastern Road, Brighton, on Thursday evening.

Staff need a pass code to enter the restricted area, believed to be used by employees working in main operating theatres.

The find has sparked fears drug addicts could be taking part in operations.

Rosemary Shepherd, chairwoman of the Brighton and Hove University Patient and Public Involvement Forum (PPI), said: "This is serious for the hospital - they have got to find out who this belongs to.

"I would think staff would sign up in their contract not to take drugs.

"I don't think this sort of thing is rife but I suppose everybody needs to be worried about it. It's not the sort of thing we want happening."

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust could not confirm in which part of the hospital the drugs were found but said staff were co-operating with the police investigation and patients should not worry.

He said: "The trust takes a very serious view of drug use and is dealing with this matter as a high priority."

Martina Bond, who complained after her sister Monique Monz was left in a blood-spattered room at the hospital last October, was angered by the discovery.

Mrs Bond, 32, of Collingwood Close, Peacehaven, said: "You hope things are going to change but they don't. We pay our taxes and expect to be treated fairly and properly in the way we deserve but we cannot even trust our own NHS."