A WARD has been reopened to help ease pressure on a busy hospital.

The 20-bed unit at Newhaven Community Hospital will be used for patients from the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton who need extra care and support before being able to go home.

The ward will be paid for and staffed by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex.

The aim is to help cut down on the number of bed blocking patients at the Royal Sussex and free up spaces for those who need urgent care.

This will also help ease pressure on the hospital’s accident and emergency unit, where patients often face long waits for beds to become available.

The trust, which is receiving extra funding to help cope with winter pressures, is hoping to extend the unit to 40 beds in the future.

The ward was originally opened as a temporary measure at the end of 2015 and staffed by Sussex Community Trust.

It was closed last summer against the trust’s wishes as moves were made to provide more services in the community instead.

Staff said the hospital was busy throughout the year and wanted the ward to remain open until the extra services were in place.

The trust recently took the decision to reopen the unit to help staff cope with demand despite dealing with increased financial pressures.

Board members were told at a meeting this week it was forecasting a deficit of £59.7m by the end of March.

This is significantly higher than the £15m planned but bosses say they are determined to make sure the figure does not rise any further.

Chairman Antony Kildare said: “We remain focused on ensuring we stay with the £59.7m million but there continues to be some challenges.”

Former interim chief executive Gillian Fairfield has now left the trust and newly arrived accountable officer Evelyn Barker will temporarily take on the role.

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Marianne Griffiths is taking over as chief executive at Brighton in April as part of moves to boost the organisation’s performance.