Grieving Azra Mutombo wants answers after her dying mother was left on a hospital trolley for more than ten hours.

Mrs Mutombo is outraged her mother spent one of her last days alive confused, distressed and in pain in the accident and emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton.

She has spoken out at a time when patients are facing distressing waits in A & E due to a summer crisis, with demand up 27 per cent on last year.

Doreen Barley, 63, was diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the pancreas in February and was told to go home and enjoy the rest of her time with her husband Frank and Azra, who helped nurses care for her.

When she started coughing blood on Saturday, July 8, her daughter rang 999 for an ambulance which took 20 minutes to arrive at the Bowring Way home, directly behind the hospital.

Mrs Mutombo said her mother was placed on a trolley in A & E at about 8.15am and remained there until 6.30pm when she was finally given a bed in the Solomon Ward, where she died the following Monday.

Despite repeated requests for information and three examinations by different doctors, Mrs Mutombo said her mother was kept lying in pain on a trolley in a cubicle.

Mrs Mutombo, 40, who lives in Saltdean, said: "They put her on a trolley and it was two- and-a-half hours later that a doctor examined her. I kept having to ask the nurses what was happening and I felt like I was becoming a nuisance.

Mrs Mutombo said her mother was not given any medication for the pain, despite the fact it was known she had a terminal illness.

She said: "She was in a lot of pain and very distressed.

"When someone comes in who is obviously going to die you make them comfortable and put them in a ward. You don't make them sit on a trolley and wait in a cubicle.

"There was no need for the neglect."

Mrs Mutombo has lodged a formal complaint with the hospital.

Ian Keeber, spokesman for Brighton Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "We are taking this complaint very seriously and it is currently being formally investigated. It contains things we are not at all happy with.

"We will take whatever action is needed."