A struggling hospital trust has appointed a new long-term chairman to help tackle one of the toughest NHS jobs in the South-East.

Roy Davies, interim chairman of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, has been appointed chairman until the end of December 2009.

Mr Davies has been in post since March this year following the resignation of Adrian Brown. He will work alongside newly-appointed chief executive Gary Walker.

Mr Davies, who is also a senior board member of Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority, said: "I am looking forward to working with Gary to meet the financial and clinical challenges the trust faces and to continue our work to modernise services."

The trust, which runs Crawley Hospital, has a debt approaching £70 million out of an annual budget of more than £140 million.

Finance bosses believe they will be £38 million over budget by the end of the financial year and this is in addition to a £30 million debt built up from previous years.

Crawley Hospital has experienced major changes including the closure of three operating theatres and a ward. Routine surgery has moved to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill and other nearby hospitals.

The number of operations is being cut so there will be less demand for costly agency staff, while outpatient appointments are being cut by 55,000.

Campaigners are fighting the changes, which come on top of the loss of several key services from Crawley to Redhill including accident and emergency, maternity and children's in-patient services.