A PENSIONER evicted from a hospital bed she occupied for 14 months said she cannot pay the £8,000 legal bill she faces.

Diane Price, 79, was transferred to a rehabilitation unit at Lewes Victoria Hospital after breaking her leg in a car crash.

She refused to leave despite doctors telling her she should return home but Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust won a possession order in the High Court to free up her bed.

Mrs Price, from Hailsham, was ordered to pay £8,000 costs, which she says she does not have.

She said: "I refused to leave because I couldn't come home like that.

"I would have gone anywhere else - any care home, anywhere they would offer me. They offered me nothing.

"If I had £8,000 I would be spending it on being looked after somewhere else."

The trust said the usual stay was 14 days.

Mrs Price was discharged on Monday and is being looked after by her daughter and carers.

The trust said Mrs Price was resident on the ward for over a year despite not having had any clinical need or potential for further rehabilitation for some time.