Hospitals across Sussex are working flat out to plug a severe nursing shortage.

Managers are again considering recruiting nurses from overseas to make sure as many posts as possible are filled because of the crisis.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton's main medical centre, needs to find 140 nurses.

The crisis has been partly compounded by the fact the hospital is extending services in such areas as intensive care and cardiac work.

Hospitals in Worthing and Haywards Heath also have shortages.

Danny Mortimer, deputy personnel director with Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex, said managers were looking at ways to promote the rewards of nursing in line with Government campaigns to recruit and retain medical staff.

He said: "We are expanding services and there are increasing demands. But we are continuing to think long-term and encouraging people to come into the profession."

At the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath, up to 50 nursing vacancies are being tackled by 32 nurses from the Philippines due to start next month.

Stefan Cantore, deputy chief executive of the hospital's managers Mid Sussex NHS Trust, said other vacancies would be filled from employment agencies and the trust's bank, a pool of nurses who worked as and when they were needed.

Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust needs to recruit 49 trained nurses and 34 untrained nurses, who provide more basic care.

The trust encourages nurses to work on a range of wards so they can find the medical field they want to specialise in and holds information days so people can learn more about nursing.

Ethel Trigg, the trust's head of clinical practice, said: "We have got to maintain safety of patients at all times. We are trying our utmost to maintain optimum nursing care throughout the winter period."

Earlier this month the Argus revealed health managers were working flat out to head-off the winter crisis.

Plans included giving more 'flu vaccinations, extending the working week for some NHS staff across seven days and making sure more bodies could be buried.