A woman with heart problems spent three days in casualty because there were no other beds available.

Lilian Futcher was rushed to hospital with severe chest pains caused by a suspected angina attack.

She was treated and put on a machine to monitor her heart while she waited to be transferred to a specialist cardiac care ward at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

But there were no free beds and Mrs Futcher, 57, spent three nights in the accident and emergency department next to the entrance used to bring in patients from ambulances.

She said: "They told me I needed a bed with a heart monitor, but there wasn't one available in intensive care or on the cardiac ward. A lot of the wards were full.

"I was not the only one, there were others and I was taking up one of the spaces needed in A&E."

After three nights without sleep she asked to be discharged from the Princess Royal, which has about 450 beds.

Mrs Futcher, of Denham Road, Burgess Hill, had nothing but praise for the staff who treated her, but she was appalled by a system she felt had let her down. She blamed the Government for failing to provide enough funding.

She said: "The Government doesn't give them enough funds. Alan Milburn wants to go there and be in the same situation. He should meet those staff and see what they have to do.

"It is putting them in an impossible situation. You can only put it down to money. It all comes down to funding.

"It must be demoralising for the staff. It's not their fault but they are the ones who get all the flack.

"It isn't the staff's fault and it isn't the hospital's fault. They cannot cope with all the patients coming in on the small amount they get."

About 60 beds at the hospital are blocked by patients because of a shortage of nursing home places.

The director of planning, performance and communication at the hospital, Richard Penney, said: "Mrs Futcher's comments about the care she received are encouraging and welcome.

"We are sorry that during her time here we were unable to provide a specialist bed in cardiac care.

"There are some problems with delayed transfer of care. We are working continuously on that problem."

Mid Sussex district councillor Anne Jones was shocked when Mrs Futcher's husband John called to tell her where his wife had been treated.

She said: "It's quite alarming. When you are not in a ward you are meant to be and all you can see is the demands of what is happening in the unit, you don't want to trouble the staff for anything.

"You just can't relax and think about getting better. It's not fair to the staff and it's certainly not fair to the hospital."