The head of a hospital trust has accused a county council of failing patients who need long-term care.

Kim Hodgson, who took over as chief executive of East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust three weeks ago, said she was "baffled" by East Sussex County Council's failure to fulfil its statutory obligation to find places for patients needing more care once they had left hospital.

Dozens of patients are regularly stuck in hospital beds because nursing or care home places can't be found for them.

The trust had to cancel 472 operations at the last minute between January and June this year and a large number of those were because beds were taken up by patients who could not leave.

It is unusual for senior hospital managers to criticise other organisations publicly.

Ms Hodgson said: "The trust fulfills its duty to provide the medical care and treatment patients need but there are some who once they have had that treatment still need support.

"That is when the other organisations need to take over. Our hospitals do their best to look after the patients but they do not have the facilities for the next step.

"It is beyond belief that this situation has been allowed to go on for so long. It is something we need to work at closely."

The hospital trust also took the unprecedented step earlier this year of paying for 30 nursing home places and now plans to build a temporary 35-bed acute ward for surgical patients in the corner of a staff car park at Eastbourne.

Ms Hodgson made her comments yesterday as MPs blamed the crisis at Sussex hospitals for threatening patient care.

Almost every hospital trust in the county is millions of pounds over budget and will struggle to break even in the next financial year. Some hospital trusts in the county have already cut the number of operations they perform while others are reducing the number of outpatients appointments they make.

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare, which runs Crawley Hospital, was more than £30 million in the red last year and faces an overspend of £37 million this year, giving it one of the highest debts in the country.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals was £10 million in debt last year and could end up with an even higher figure this year.