OPERATIONS have been cancelled after patient pressures forced an NHS hospital trust to go on its highest level of alert.

About 540 patients attended accident and emergency departments in Brighton and Haywards Heath on Monday, the most they have seen for more than a year.

The surge put pressure on the already overstretched hospitals, who have been struggling with a shortage of beds over the past week.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has been admitting more patients than usual who need extra care and therefore have to stay in for treatment for longer.

It is believed this may be linked to the recent rise in temperature and problems with smog, which can make conditions such as asthma and lung disease worse. This, combined, with delays in discharging patients into community beds or back home with extra support following the Easter break, has added to the problem.

The trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, is now operating on black alert, which means non-emergency operations are being cancelled and the wider NHS community is being called on to help. A further 11 operations, including one for a cancer patient, were cancelled yesterday.

In a message to staff, chief executive Matthew Kershaw said the situation remained “extremely challenged”.

He said: “For the duration of last week, the number of patients coming in didn’t significantly increase but we did see higher levels of the care required for those who did, so once they were admitted they needed to stay for longer.

“This meant we discharged fewer patients home and our ability to discharge patients was also hampered by the effects of the holiday period on the responsiveness of some of the services we need to help us discharge patients safely to their own homes or another place of care.

“So come Monday morning, we had no headroom and as a result we have had to make some very difficult decisions in order to restore flow and do our best for the patients already in our care.”

Mr Kershaw said the key was to create more capacity within the hospitals themselves and also the community in order to ease pressures on beds and break the cycle.

Work has included opening extra beds in Newhaven, setting up a temporary building outside A&E at the Royal Sussex for older patients who need to be assessed. The trust is also working with the ambulance service, councils and clinical commissioning groups to find ways to ease the pressure.

A spokesman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said: “We are aware that the hospital trust is very busy and we would urge everyone to consider the alternatives available to them in seeking medical help.”

MORGUE FULL AND BEDS SHORTAGE

BRIGHTON and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust became so busy over the winter that its morgue ran out of space.

It came under intense pressure with unprecedented demand from patients and a shortage of available beds.

It was among a number of trusts across Sussex and the UK that struggled to cope with delays in discharging patients and long waits in accident and emergency departments.

The trust reported operational problems eight times from November to March, East Sussex Healthcare reported 17 and Western Sussex Hospitals 23.