An extra £1.5 million is being spent on health and social services in Sussex to beat winter pressures.

The extra cash is East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority's share of a £40 million Government grant aimed at tackling problems caused by an increase in demand for services.

The authority is giving more than 600,000 to East Sussex County Council and nearly £500,000 to Brighton and Hove Council.

The money will be used to help them provide care for and find spaces at nursing homes for people who are unnecessarily filling up hospital beds as they are fit for discharge.

This will enable hospitals to return to planned levels of surgery, cut down on the number of cancelled operations and reduce any trolley waits in accident and emergency departments.

Brighton Health Care NHS Trust will be given funding to establish a 20 bed intermediate care facility at Brighton General Hospital from January to March.

The beds will be used by patients recovering from surgery at Royal Sussex County General.

Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust is opening a 24-bed ward at All Saints Hospital this month for 19 weeks to help cope with the expected demand.

Health authority chief executive Allan Bedford said: "The extra £1.5 million for the NHS and social services on top of previous increases is very welcome news.

"It will see hospital beds freed up for their orginial purpose of providing acute medical and surgical care and allow patients to return home or to go to a nursing or residential home."

Allan Bowman, strategic director of social care and health for Brighton and Hove Council said: "We welcome the Government's annoucement.

"The size of the allocation is a testament to the difficulties we face locally but also reflects the close working relationship between social services and the health economy."

David Tutt, East Sussex County Council lead member for social services, said: "I very much welcome the additional funding which has been announced.

"This will allow health and social services to work more co-operatively together to discharge older people from hospital.

"We are continuing to seek agreement about the need for additional funding next year to help our situation."

West Sussex Health Authority is also expecting extra funding and plans to use the money to cut down on unnecessary admissions to hospitals by making sure people know exactly where to go for treatment.

It also plans to work on ways to find places at nursing homes for patients recovering from surgery.

Chief executive Candy Morris said: "More work in preparing the NHS for winter has been done this year than ever before and we are confident that we have done everything humanly possible to make sure that services will be available when they are needed. "