THE number of hospitalisations for coronavirus at a hospital hit by a Covid surge has been revealed.

Today the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which provides clinical services at Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, announced it is postponing some non-urgent operations and redeploying staff as it feels the pressure of the nationwide surge in Covid-19 cases

Figures reveal there are 53 patients currently at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton with Covid-19.

Five or fewer of those patients at the hospital are in intensive care or high dependency beds.

The NHS trust announced that it is facing "unprecedented delays" in discharging patients, as well as high numbers of staff off with the virus.

Chief nurse Dr Maggie Davies said the trust is doing "everything we can to ease pressures" and said urgent operations and cancer treatment are being prioritised.

Pressure has been rising across the Sussex trust over the last few weeks as hospitals see a spike in coronavirus cases as a result of the Omicron variant.

The announcement came as North Portslade councillor Peter Atkinson warned that Brighton and Hove is just a couple of weeks away from seeing a wave of Covid cases similar to London.

He said: "You’ve got a very constant stream of people and quite a high number who wouldn’t normally be admitted, because Covid is causing them to be unwell.

"This is a number of people being admitted far in excess of what would normally happen, and in addition you’ve got the problem of staff being off sick themselves or having to self-isolate, and that covers the mental health trust, the community trust and the acute hospitals trust."

Brighton and Hove reported three more deaths from Covid-19 over the last 24 hours, with a further 329 cases recorded.

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