Dozens of former patients are living in hospital wards for weeks after their treatment ends because they have nowhere else to go.

The homeless, elderly and vulnerable former patients are languishing in hospitals across Sussex, blocking beds and pushing up waiting lists.

In February, there were an average of 48 "delayed discharges" within Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust - more five times the "manageable" maximum - due to a shortage of care home places for the elderly.

Health authorities are battling to reduce the problem, which is responsible for delays in treatment for other patients and costs £1.5 million a year.

The crisis is continuing despite ministers announcing they would spend millions of pounds each year until 2008 to help health boards and councils find a solution.

Figures obtained by The Argus reveal 1,403 "bed days" were lost in the trust's hospitals in February - equivalent to 48 former patients blocking beds for the whole month.

Many are elderly in need of specialist residential care while others are awaiting community care assessments or cannot return to their homes for a variety of reasons.

Peter Adams, of the Patient's Action Group in Sussex, said: "It is clear that more needs to be done to get these people out of the hospital and that means more services have to be available in the community.

"People don't want to be in hospital if they don't need to be there and the hospital needs the beds."

The trust provides more than 1,000 beds in the Royal Sussex, the Sussex Eye Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital and Hurstwood Park neurological centre in Haywards Heath.

The shortage of beds has a knock-on effect in the already busy accident and emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton where patients ready to be admitted have to wait until a bed becomes available for them.

This means the department is struggling to hit its Government target of ensuring almost all patients are seen, treated and either admitted or discharged within four hours.

Primary care trusts and social services are responsible for ensuring support services are available in the community but despite their commitments to reduce the number of bed-blocking patients at the hospital trust, levels continue to stay high across the county.

There are 12 bed blockers at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings and 18 at Eastbourne District General Hospital.

In a report to the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust board earlier this month director of service transformation Simon Payler (crct) said its hospitals had disproportionately more bed-blocking patients when compared to other parts of the South East.

The trust's catchment area is around 11 per cent of the total Strategic Health Authority population area but it makes up between 18 and 36 per cent of the total number of bed-blockers.

The problems are compounded by the trust's work to save £15 million this year, which has led to a reduction in staff and the loss of more than 80 beds.

A report published by the hospitals's patient and public involvement forum earlier this month also highlighted the extreme pressures A&E staff were facing and noted that patients were waiting longer than necessary because of a shortage of available beds.

The pressures faced by the hospital has sparked fears if a public consultation launched later this year leads to the eventual loss of all A&E services at neighbouring hospitals such as Worthing and the Princess Royal, the Royal Sussex will not be able to cope with demand.

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