MORE than 700 people waited for 12 hours or more in a health trust’s A&E departments last month.

The figures from Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH), which runs the Royal Sussex County hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal hospital in Haywards Heath, have been described as “catastrophic”.

Experts agreed that a combination of limited resources, high winter admissions and healthy patients not being discharged due to a lack of social care, contributed to the performance figures which are the worst of the financial year.

The trust’s monthly report also showed that in January almost a quarter of patients waited in A&E for more than the four hour target time, and 28 spent 12 hours or more waiting on a trolley.

The 12 hour-plus waiting time endured by 709 patients is calculated from the time of arrival. The number includes patients subsequently deemed not to need emergency care.

Katrina Miller, of Sussex Defend the NHS, said: “These numbers are catastrophic.

“We all need to shout out – more staff, more beds, more social care.”

The report also revealed 152 patients have been waiting more than a year for an operation. The target is 18 weeks. In three of those cases “some harm” had come to patients.

A spokesman for BSUH said: “The increase in seriously ill and injured patients needing to be admitted into hospital is coupled with low numbers of patients who no longer need acute hospital care being discharged.

“Our aim is always to treat patients arriving in our emergency departments as quickly as possible but unfortunately when the hospital is very busy there are times when patients have to wait longer than we would like.”

The trust said it was hard to balance the needs of emergency patients with the requirement to find beds for long-scheduled treatments.

A spokesman said many patients waiting a year or more had received some care in the hospital.

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