Brighton hospital 'second worst' for A&E waits

Health commissioners said they were working to take pressure off A&E

Nearly one in five people are waiting longer than four hours to be seen at an A&E in Brighton, figures have shown.

Statistics showed 19.9% of people waited more than four hours at the Royal Sussex County - the second worst figures in England from April to June.

NHS commissioners said they were looking to find better ways of working across the community and the hospital, so fewer people go to A&E.

The trust said it was a very busy hospital on a site short of space.

'Funding cuts'

Dr Christa Beesley, chief clinical officer at Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group, said the A&E was under "tough pressure".

"We're working really closely with doctors in the hospital to try to think of better ways of working across the community and the hospital," she said.

She also said staff were finding ways for people to avoid A&E - one example was allowing GPs to send patients directly to a newly-opened surgical assessment unit so they bypassed the emergency unit.

But Janice Kent, from Central Sussex Independent Patients Forum, said the hospital was suffering from funding cuts and recruitment problems.

The hospital had recently recruited 300 nurses but many needed further training, she added.

Chief executive Matthew Kershaw said the hospital was very busy and was short of space

Earlier this year, Brighton's A&E ranked eighth worst in England, and last autumn, the trust was told to improve its emergency department.

The previous year, it was named as the worst for numbers of patients waiting more than 12 hours - and nurses reported their "worst week".

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust said it treated an "awful lot of patients".

"We are also quite a capacity-constrained site and we don't have a lot of space," said chief executive Matthew Kershaw.

"We also have work to do to improve how we manage our patients through the hospital."