A stroke victim has been stuck in A&E for ten days due to bed blocking.

The 78-old-woman from Hurstpierpoint, who has chosen not to be named, suffered a stroke at the Amex Stadium following the last Albion game of the season.

After receiving medical assistance from stadium staff, the woman was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton by ambulance and admitted to accident and emergency at 7.10pm on Sunday, May 19.

She was then left on a trolley in a corridor for 40 hours, according to Paul Samrah, her friend of 30 years.

At midday on Tuesday, May 21, she was moved to the acute admissions unit within A&E and has remained there since.

Paul, who was with the woman when she had the stroke, said: “They had no beds on the stroke ward. It is nowhere near to what they could offer in the ward.

“There are people who do not need to be there. It has been almost nine days without specialist stroke physiotherapy.

“We have no idea what the long term effects may be. There seems to be no end in sight.”

Paul told The Argus the delay was due to bed blocking, a widespread problem where recovered patients cannot be discharged as there is nowhere suitable for them to go.

READ MORE: Brighton hospital patients crammed into A&E corridors

Paul said: “We have been thinking about transferring to another hospital but the stroke centre is at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

“That is the conundrum and it is leading to stress for a stroke victim that does not need stress.

“It is not right. The family are at their wits' end.

“It cannot be unreasonable to expect a stroke victim to be on a stroke ward within nine days of arriving at A&E.”

Siobhan Murray, managing director for unscheduled care at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust which runs the hospital, said: "Our staff sometimes struggle to move patients into the right ward space because we are unable to free up beds quickly enough - that is a poor experience for patients and we would apologise to anyone who is affected.

"Our teams do brilliant work to ensure that patients still get the right support, wherever they are, but we know that such experiences are not what people should accept.”