Hospital bosses say more specialist nurses are needed to improve its diabetes service.

The team of workers at Brighton Health Care NHS Trust's diabetic unit is at full stretch.

Nick Vaughan, clinical director of medical care at the trust, says more nurses are needed to help ease the pressure.

An audit report into the running of the service found it was efficient and provided excellent facilities but staff shortages were putting a strain on resources.

The service has managed to get by so far because it is well organised and staff work well together but there are still problems.

The main concern is use of a phoneline for patients offering advice and information about their condition is limited because nurses do not have the time to answer it and are unable to cope with the number of calls.

The report says the situation needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Trust chief executive Stuart Welling said the situation would be discussed early this year when the annual budget is drawn up.

He warned the unit would not automatically get the money it needed for the extra posts because of funding shortages.

He said: "There are many other areas within the trust that, like the diabetic unit, are important, but we only have a limited amount of funds.

"We are going to have to make some difficult decisions next year."