Breast care services should stay in Brighton rather than move to Haywards Heath, a health trust chief executive says.

Stuart Welling, chief executive of Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, admitted he did not want to move the breast unit from the Royal Sussex County Hospital to the Princess Royal at a public meeting last night.

He also revealed a firm of architects has been commissioned to re-examine the possibility of building a new, larger unit in the city.

The Argus is campaigning to keep breast cancer services in Brighton and Hove.

Mr Welling said in an ideal world facilities would stay in the city but the existing Nigel Porter Unit was inadequate and patients' needs would be better served at the Princess Royal, which has space to build a new breast unit.

Such a move would make it easier for many women living in Mid Sussex to attend breast cancer appointments but would mean a difficult 34-mile round trip for the 2,000 women from Brighton and Hove who use breast cancer services each year.

Mr Welling said: "We do not want to move it. We acknowledge there is a problem with transport for people from Brighton and Hove to Haywards Heath and in an ideal world we would not move it.

"We have brought to you a proposal for what we believe is the best solution we can make of not an ideal situation."

Mr Welling said breast care had to be based at a major district general hospital such as the Royal Sussex or Princess Royal and could not be accommodated on a small site.

He said it would not be possible to build a new breast care building at the Royal Sussex for at least ten years because too much investment and building work was already taking place on the site.

He said he was not hopeful a firm of architects commissioned to re-examine the possibility of building a new unit in Brighton and Hove would come up with anything.

The trusts have proposed two options for breast care services in Brighton and Mid Sussex. The first involves transferring all breast care services apart from initial breast screening and radiotherapy to Haywards Heath.

The second would retain a basic breast care treatment centre at Brighton, where those women found to have abnormalities during screening could go as a first port of call, before being referred to the Princess Royal.

Mr Welling was speaking at Franklands Village Hall, Haywards Heath last night, at the last in a series of public meetings to discuss the proposed merger of Brighton Health Care and Mid Sussex NHS trusts.

Representatives of both trusts and community health councils spoke about what the proposals would mean for staff and patients.

Stefan Cantore, chief executive of Mid Sussex NHS Trust said it would mean about 2,160 inpatients and 8,000 outpatients a year being sent to the Royal Sussex instead of the Princess Royal.

He said without the merger, services at the Princess Royal might become unsustainable while those at the Royal Sussex came under increasing pressure.

Apart from breast cancer services, the most controversial department facing a transfer is emergency arterial services, which would be moved to Brighton.

There would be an accident and emergency department at each hospital.

At the meeting, audience members voiced concerns about the distance between the two hospitals and difficulties for patients and relatives forced to travel long distances using inadequate public transport.

They also feared patients with severe arterial problems might not survive the 17-mile journey by ambulance to Brighton.