Patients are being left stranded in hospital wards for up to a year because there is nowhere for them to go.

There are now at least 355 patients across Sussex waiting to be transferred into residential or nursing care homes.

The cost of these "bed-blocking" patients averages out at £150 per person per night, topping out at a countywide total of about £53,250 every day.

Bed-blocking has become an increasingly serious problem as social services try to cope with increasing numbers of elderly people, dwindling numbers of care home places and slashed budgets.

Earlier this week, the Department of Health announced £8.2 million would be ploughed into dealing with the problem in Sussex.

East Sussex will receive £1.25 million a year for the next two years and Brighton and Hove £537,000.

Managers of social services departments and hospital trusts hope this new money will reduce the backlog in bed-blocking hotspots.

At its worst, Eastbourne Hospital had 85 blocked beds with one patient staying 236 days before being moved on. The figure now stands at 65, two more than the 63 blocked beds across Brighton and Hove. Other hospitals in the district have a total of 41 beds occupied by elderly patients waiting to be transferred.

West Sussex County Council has also received £2.31 million, the fourth largest award in England, to deal with the spiralling problem.

Worthing and Southlands Hospitals have a total of 50 bed-blockers who stay for an average of 30 days. At St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, the numbers stand at 21 but the average stay is 105 days.

At the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, there are 52 blockers out of 249 acute beds. At least six of the 105 beds at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, are taken up by people waiting for care home places.

Some of the 57 bed-blocking patients in Horsham and Crawley Hospitals have been stuck there for 12 months.

A spokeswoman for the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust confirmed some elderly patients had been waiting for a transfer for more than a year.

Kathleen Parrott, 89, has been waiting for a transfer from Horsham Hospital to a residential care home since April.

The great-grandmother told her family she wished she was dead after months of misery and uncertainty.

Her son, Doug, of Wheatsheaf Road, Henfield, said not one elderly person from the Crawley area had been funded for a residential care home place in six months.

In a letter to West Sussex social and caring services, he wrote: "In all of this time, my mother has been occupying a nursing bed she doesn't need and left a council flat empty that someone else could be benefiting from."

Marianne Griffiths, head of commissioning at West Sussex County Council social and caring services and director of strategic development at West Sussex Health Authority, said: "We are very sorry at the distress caused to Mrs Parrott and her family.

"The social services funding position has been grossly inadequate.

"Following much lobbying by county council members and the authority, the Department of Health has finally recognised the extent of the problems and yesterday announced a significant cash boost for West Sussex."

According to a spokesman for Care Choices, a firm that produces care home directories, the price of residential care homes in Sussex ranges from £245 up to £800 per week for the most luxurious private suites.

In contrast, the average cost per week of a bed-blocking patient on a public ward is £1,050.

A statement from Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Horsham and Crawley Hospitals, said the trust was doing everything it could do alleviate the problem.