A CRISIS struck hospital is no longer critically full.

Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital has now been stood down from the “critical incident” declared earlier this week.

A spokesman for the Brighton and Sussex university Hospital’s Trust said: “We stood down the critical incident, thanks to all the hard work everyone had put in on Monday and Tuesday, despite very large numbers of new patients arriving at our A&E departments.

“With the help of our local authorities, we have discharged a lot of patients and also treated a lot of new patients.”

Cuts to social care forcing patients to stay in hospital, combined with added pressures on the city’s GPs forcing more people to seek help in A&E has led to the hospital functioning at almost full capacity for months.

The trust’s two hospitals - the Royal Sussex in Brighton and Princess Royal in Haywards Heath declared a “critical incident” on Monday.

Critics blamed a national funding crisis in the NHS with hospitals barely able to cope with demand.

Brighton and Hove CCG also blamed patients attending accident and emergency and visiting their GPs and told patients to treat themselves at home or look up their symptoms on the NHS online.

Patients have been advised to avoid calling 999 unless it is a life threatening emergency.

The trust has been in special measures since 2016, with neighbouring Western Sussex Hospital bosses drafted in to turn it around.