Bed-blocking patients are clogging up more than a tenth of hospital places in the Brighton and Hove area.

More than 100 of the 1,140 beds in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust are used by people fit to leave hospital.

But no nursing or care home place can be found for them and chief executive Stuart Welling said one ward at Brighton General Hospital was "almost like a nursing home."

Bed-blocking and an unexpected rise in accident and emergency cases at the Royal Sussex County Hospital has put the trust under extreme pressure.

Dozens of operations, including those for cancer patients, are being cancelled.

Mr Welling told trust board members: "We are rescheduling operations as quickly as we can and things are starting to ease slightly.

"Staff are under immense pressure. The holiday season is coming up and agencies are finding it difficult to help fill shifts.

"We are trying our hardest to open extra beds and will concentrate on getting cancer patients seen to."

Mr Welling said the local health community, including social services, needed to work together.

He said: "It is stressful for patients who need to come in and also for those who no longer need the beds and want to leave."

The trust says delayed discharges need to be halved to improve the flow of patients through hospitals including the Royal Sussex, Sussex Eye Hospital, some wards at Brighton General and the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath.

Part of the problem is the shortage of affordable nursing and care home places in the city. Dozens of homes have closed in the last year because owners cannot afford to adapt buildings to meet Government standards.

Homes say the amount paid to them by social services to look after patients is not enough.

Other concerns are the number of patients referred to the hospital by GPs who could be treated at home.

Mr Welling said: "This is a problem that faces the whole health community.

"A hospital is not the right environment for people well enough to leave."