More than 100 patients faced delays over 30 minutes in transfer from ambulances to hospitals last week.

Latest NHS England figures show 689 patients arrived at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust A&E by ambulance between December 21 and 27.

A total of 118 had to wait between 30 and 60 minutes, and 30 had to wait even longer.

The Nuffield Trust said the NHS was under enormous pressure, with the queues of ambulances seen across England in recent weeks likely caused by the surge in coronavirus cases and reduced capacity.

National guidance says patients arriving at an emergency department by ambulance must be handed over to the care of A&E staff within 15 minutes.

The busiest day was December 23, when 32 were waiting at least half an hour.

On Christmas Day, there were 11 patients unable to be admitted to A&E within this time.

A delay does not necessarily mean the patient waited in the ambulance itself – but staff were not available to complete the handover.

An NHS spokesman said: “NHS staff are now caring for record numbers of seriously ill Covid patients requiring hospital treatment.

“But they are doing so while also caring for substantially more emergency patients with other conditions than were in hospital during the first Covid peak in April.

“The pandemic has required changes to the way the NHS delivers care, with hospitals having to split services into separate Covid and non-Covid zones, so to protect individual patients some beds and ward bays have to be taken out of use.”

Data on delayed ambulance transfers is collected each winter by the NHS.

Since November 30, more than 45,000 patients in England were delayed for at least 30 minutes.

In Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust, there have been 742 delays in the past four weeks.

The British Medical Association said the announcement that millions more people will move into higher tier restrictions was the only way to keep us safe and “ensure more people don’t become seriously ill or die”.