Five hospital consultants have written to NHS bosses condemning plans to cut casualty services at the Princess Royal Hospital.

The five, who all work at the Haywards Heath hospital, say patients will be put at risk if facilities for urgent surgery are removed.

They say they fail to see how proposals drawn up by the Central Sussex Partnership Project will mean better health care for Mid Sussex residents.

The doctors have joined the public outcry over plans to send seriously ill or injured patients more than ten miles to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Currently they would be taken to Haywards Heath for surgery.

They say medical advice recommends hospitals should have facilities to carry out major surgery if they deal with acutely-ill patients and warn that "initial diagnoses are sometimes erroneous and complications may develop in medical patients resulting in the need for urgent surgery."

I a joint letter, the consultants said: "We are convinced it is not safe to admit acute medical patients to the PRH without acute surgical cover."

The doctors go on to warn of a "prohibitive delay in access to treatment" which they say will "inevitably mean that lives are lost".

They believe the Princess Royal should not be sacrificed to improve facilities in Brighton, but rather surgery levels should be raised.

The letter, sent to Central Sussex chiefs was signed by consultant physicians Dr Keith Hine, Dr Trevor Wheatley, Dr Jennie Metcalfe, Dr Mark Jackson and Dr Martin Jones.

The doctors' views are among those to be considered before final proposals go forward for formal public consultation.

More than 54,000 people signed petition forms in protest at the changes in the casualty department.

West Sussex Health Authority chairman Candy Morris said the issue of running acute medical services without having on-site acute surgery was being discussed at a conference in London on Wednesday and she hoped some of the doctors would attend.

She added: "Obviously we will be taking this particular issue into account because it is important."