A woman has told how her mother spent more than 50 hours on a trolley in A&E.

Patients continue to be tightly packed into corridors at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The woman said her mother was one of dozens of patients crammed into the hospital's emergency department. She was so shocked she filmed the 80-year-old being wheeled past fellow patients on trolleys, revealing the extent of the crisis.

The hospital says it treats hundreds of patients with nowhere else to go, piling the pressure on doctors and nurses.

The woman, who filmed the scene inside the department this weekend, said her mother was admitted to the Royal Sussex on Friday afternoon with back pains.

She said her mother spent 52 hours on a trolley in the corridor of the emergency department – a situation she fears made her mother worse.

READ MORE: NHS doctors say patients dying in corridor of Royal Sussex in Brighton

She said: “There were at least 25 to 30 people on trolleys. I was there for four hours and wherever I stepped I would be in a nurse’s way.

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“My mother was delirious. She was lying in urine-soaked sheets.

“Every time someone new came in on a trolley they had to move people from all directions just to try and fit them in.

“The staff were absolutely lovely and are doing their absolute best but they can’t cope.

"It worries me that my mum is being treated in that situation."

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said that her mother finally got a bed on Sunday evening but her condition had deteriorated while in the department.

She added that one man being treated in the department told doctors he 'couldn't stay there any more' and left despite still needing treatment.

It comes after a number of investigations by The Argus spanning over a year which found patients have died in corridors in the Royal Sussex emergency department.

A report by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, found it treats hundreds of patients every day who are ready to be discharged but have nowhere to go.

The trust, which also runs Worthing Hospital and the Princess Royal in Haywards Heath, among others, said the bed blocking puts additional strain on their services, in particular in their A&E departments.

Siobhan Murray, managing director for unscheduled care at UH Sussex, said: ''Our A&E departments have been under severe pressure in recent days, and particularly over the weekend. The impact on our patients has been significant, and our staff have had to work incredibly hard in very difficult circumstances - the impact is simply not good enough for everyone affected. 

“The problems we see in A&E are not caused there - they are the product of pressures across the system, not just in our hospitals where there are a number of patients who are medically ready to leave, but also across the wider NHS and social care system.

“There is no single, quick fix to ease these pressures, and we will keep working with our partners to better manage how people can get the care they need, quickly, to help our emergency care teams to do their vital work."