More money must be paid to nursing and care home owners to help ease the bed-blocking crisis in Sussex hospitals.

Alan Bedford, chief executive of East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority, said the extra money was vital if homes were to stay open.

Mr Bedford wants East Sussex County Council to increase the payments it makes per patient to nursing home owners to encourage them to take in more people.

The Government is to give the county's social services department £1.25 million a year for the next two years to reduce the bed-blocking backlog.

Hundreds of elderly patients are stranded in hospitals across the county because nursing home places cannot be found - a phenomenon known to health chiefs as 'bed-blocking'.

Hospitals have had to cancel non-urgent operations and leave patients waiting on trolleys in accident and emergency departments for hours until a bed can be found on a ward.

The number of nursing home places across the county is falling because many cannot afford to install the expensive alterations needed to meet Government standards being enforced next April.

The East Sussex branch of the Nursing Homes Association said many of its homes were also struggling because they could not afford to look after patients on the average of £350 a week being offered by social services.

The association says basic care should start at about £400 a week, rising to £600 for more specialist cases.

The figure is still much lower than the average £1,150 a week it costs hospitals to look after patients waiting to be transferred to a home.

At a health authority board meeting, Mr Bedford said he was keeping a close eye on waiting list figures and trolley delays at hospitals in East Sussex.

He said he was so keen to tackle the situation the authority was lending the county some of the promised Government money in advance so social services workers could start working on the problem.

He said: "We have been assured by all hospitals if the blocked beds crisis is resolved, they will actively work on bringing waiting lists back on line.

"It is important the county spends some of the money on increasing the fees paid to homes so the market is viable.

"They need to be paid so the places stay open."