Hospital managers have called in a team of specialist financial experts to help them save money.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust will be working with PriceWaterhouseCoopers over the coming weeks as it prepares to face a widely expected drop in funding.

Details of the NHS financial settlement for 2010 onwards are due to be revealed later this month with organisations across the country expecting to have to tighten their belts.

This is despite hospitals continuing to deal with more patients than ever before and a potential outbreak of swine flu.

In a message to staff, trust chief executive Duncan Selbie insisted the review was not about job losses or cuts in services.

He said: “Providing the highest quality care within the means available has never been easy and it is about to get tougher.

“We have started an intensive piece of work with PriceWaterhouseCoopers to search for ideas and opportunities that balance the need to find savings without compromising quality and safety.

“There are ways in which this can be done and we are looking to learn from the best within and outside of the trust.

“To be clear this is not a prelude to a redundancy programme or the like. Far from it.

“It is about planning ahead and behaving and acting in a financially responsible way given the wider economic circumstances facing the UK.”

The trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, paid out more than £1 million to PriceWaterhouseCoopers after employing them for financial advice back in 2006.

The trust was more than £11 million in debt at the time and said it needed expert help to get its finances under control.

The trust broke even for the first time in April and is aiming to make a surplus of more than £4 million by next year.

Managers need to keep on financial track so they will be given permission from the Department of Health to continue with pans for a planned £400 million redevelopment of the Royal Sussex.