With just a few days to go until the end of the controversial public consultation on the future of hospital services in West Sussex and Brighton, Siobhan Ryan looks at the potential impact on people in the east of the county, dealing with a public consultation of their own.

It's not just about West Sussex and Brighton and Hove.

There are many living in places like Newhaven, Lewes, Uckfield and Newick in East Sussex who have just as many concerns about the future of health services.

They are regular users of the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and have already spoken of their worries about the impact of losing vital services such as accident and emergency and maternity.

The prospect of having to travel further afield to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton or the Eastbourne District General Hospital, a distance of more than 20 miles in some cases, is daunting.

While things are looking promising in terms of A&E as the final touches to alternative proposals are drawn up, the future of maternity is by no means assured unless the Princess Royal is able to attract many more mothers-to-be to its unit.

If the Princess Royal maternity unit, which has more than 2,200 births a year, begins to push its boundaries further into East Sussex to bring in more patients, how will this affect the number of babies born at hospitals elsewhere in the county?

At the moment there are two full consultant-led maternity services at Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards.

Almost 2,000 babies are born at Eastbourne each year and a further 1,800 at the Conquest.

There is also a stand-alone midwife-led birthing centre in Crowborough which deals with more than 300 births.

PCT bosses and the Royal Colleges generally say there should be about 4,000 births a year to justify a consultant-led unit - enough to keep specialists up to scratch while meeting EU working time directives that restricts the hours people can work in a week.

Centralising at one site would ensure a service that is sustainable while clinically safe.

As the consultation in West Sussex draws to a close, the results of another are about to be revealed.

East Sussex Downs and Weald and Hastings and Rother primary care trusts are expected to announce next month what decision they have made about the future of maternity services at both hospitals.

Earlier this year the PCTs ran a Fit for the Future public consultation which put forward four options. They called for a consultant-led maternity service to be based at either Eastbourne District General Hospital or the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards and a midwife-led service at the other.

A special care baby unit and in-patient gynaecology service would be based at the hospital with the full maternity service.

But campaigners warned lives would be put at risk and set about drawing up a proposal of their own which calls for full services to be kept at both hospitals.

The problem, say many, is that there is a distance of more than 16 miles between Eastbourne and St Leonards and the road link is poor.

If maternity services are lost at Eastbourne then mothers could potentially find themselves heading for Brighton, 23 miles away, while in the Hastings area people will end up going 28 miles to Tunbridge Wells.

If mothers needing urgent help have to travel further afield for treatment it is adding to the stress and the potential for problems to develop.

Liz Walke, from Eastbourne, has been leading the Save the DGH campaign and is tired of hearing about numbers and figures.

She said: "We have seen evidence from hospital units elsewhere that have been able to keep services going with lower numbers of births while still meeting all the right criteria.

"It really should not be about the numbers. It should be about ensuring women get plenty of local choice about where to go to give birth.

"We fully support all the hospital campaigns and fights around Sussex because when it comes down to it we are all affected and we must all stand together.

"It is about what is best for your local hospital and doing what you can to protect it.

"We are convinced that keeping two full consultant maternity units at both Eastbourne and the Conquest is vital and we will continue to fight for that."

The Save the DGH campaign is joining forces with the Hands off the Conquest Campaign on November 17 for a march and mass rally in Eastbourne.

Campaigners will meet at the Pier end of Terminus Road in Eastbourne at 11am before making their way past the station and on to the town centre car park at 11.45am.