Police have launched an inquiry after hundreds of pounds were stolen from elderly patients at a hospital.

Specialist NHS anti-fraud investigators were drafted in after four sick pensioners being treated at Worthing Hospital were targeted.

A member of staff has since resigned after health managers discovered about £500 had gone missing.

Worthing and Southlands Hospitals Trust also revealed blank prescriptions had been stolen, highlighting "a lack of control on the wards".

A report to the trust's audit committee revealed there were other investigations under way.

Trust communications manager Pam Lelliott said she could not comment on the details and referred The Argus to the NHS's Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS).

Mrs Lelliott said: "Theft of monies from four patients on a ward for the elderly at Worthing hospital were reported to the police by the trust.

"The trust then requested an investigation by the CFSMS.

"A suspect was identified and formally interviewed. The person in question then resigned and is currently under police investigation.

"The internal investigation by the CFSMS highlighted that the ward was not following the correct procedures regarding patient property.

"Action has been taken to remind staff of the policy and procedures, spot checks have been carried out throughout the trust and the staff who were not following the correct procedures have been disciplined.

"One stolen hospital prescription, which can only be dispensed from the hospital pharmacy, was presented to the trust pharmacy. The trust has robust systems in place to prevent fraudulent prescriptions from being dispensed and it was not issued.

"Incidents like these are isolated but when they happen the trust takes them extremely seriously and responds immediately."

Mrs Lelliott said security checks on employees' backgrounds were not generally carried out.

The CFSMS said individual background checks were up to each trust and that there was no national advice on the issue.

A spokesman said there were a number of investigations, designed to assess the risk of fraud at Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust.

He said: "These are routine exercises and are not related to the investigation that recently took place regarding theft from patients."

"We take all allegations of fraud very seriously and are committed to reducing it in the NHS to an absolute minimum."