Hospital staff sent a 98-year-old man home in pyjamas after losing his clothes and all of his personal possessions.

Retired shopkeeper Norman Pollins was left without his glasses and hearing aid and with no money or even the keys to his house following a blunder at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

His family are furious at the hospital's failure to look after the items which the pensioner had handed over for safe-keeping.

Son John Pollins said: "I am absolutely incensed. My father will be 99 in July, this is not a situation a man of his age should be put into."

Mr Pollins, from The Drive, Hove, had spent four days at the hospital after being rushed in for an emergency blood transfusion on Tuesday. He had encountered difficulties after having a heart pacemaker fitted in February.

Satisfied he had recovered sufficiently, hospital staff prepared him to go home on Friday afternoon.

It was only then that they discovered his belongings were missing.

John Pollins said: "I received a phone call from the hospital asking if I knew whether he had a house key with him when he was taken in. They could not find one and wanted to know whether he would be able to get into his home.

"I didn't know whether he had taken a key with him but agreed to make arrangements with the caretaker of his building to let him in.

"It was only later that they admitted they could not find any of his possessions.

"I am very angry that they tried to cover it up like that."

The family only found out what was happening once Mr Pollins, known as Nat, was sat in the hospital departure lounge in the pyjamas waiting for a health service transport to take him home.

After receiving an angry phonecall from John Pollins, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, launched a search for the missing items.

Mr Pollins' grandson, Richard Pollins, said: "It is a diabolical state of affairs."

A hospital spokeswoman said A&E staff usually fill out a receipt when they take patient's possessions for safe-keeping which enables them to keep track of items.

She said: "It appears that this was not done in this case."

The spokeswoman said this was not a regular occurrence and no changes of procedure were being planned in response.

She said: "The trust would like to apologise sincerely to Mr Pollins. This is totally unacceptable and we are making every effort to locate his possessions."