A head injuries unit could be transferred from Mid Sussex to the coast as part of long-term plans for the development of hospital services.

Moving Hurstwood Park neurological centre from Haywards Heath to the Royal Sussex County Hospital is one of several possible developments being considered by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Hospital bosses have drawn up a draft acute services strategy covering the Brighton and Hove and central Sussex area, looking at the development of hospital services over the next decade.

Two similar documents are being drawn up by primary care trusts and South Downs Health NHS Trust looking at the future of primary care, such as GP and dentist services and for the older people's services.

All three will eventually form an overall health strategy across the whole community.

The hospitals' trust will discuss the ideas with staff, patients and users groups.

Sessions are due to be held between September and December and any necessary formal public consultation will take place in early 2004.

In the mid Nineties, The Argus backed a successful Save Our Surgery campaign, to keep neurological services in Sussex when the Haywards Heath unit was under threat of closure, which would have meant patients being sent to London.

Health bosses agreed to keep the facility in Haywards Heath for the next ten years with the eventual aim of transferring it to Brighton.

A local specialist review group has been examining the future of neurosciences in Sussex and in a report due out shortly is expected to recommend the move to Brighton.

Other long-term plans include a major redevelopment at the Royal Sussex site, to replace outdated buildings including the main Barry building and Jubilee building.

There are also plans to establish an orthopaedic treatment centre at Princess Royal Hospital, which would deal with almost all non-emergency surgery and be managed by a private company.

The Princess Royal will continue to be a main centre of acute care and have an accident and emergency department. Maternity services will also stay the same.

The future use of Brighton General Hospital, cancer, cardiac and renal services and children's services also form part of the strategy.

Several plans in the document are already under way, including the transfer of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton to the Royal Sussex site.

Many of the proposals form part of the original Central Sussex Partnership Programme, drawn up when plans to merge the former Brighton Health Care and Mid Sussex trusts were outlined two years ago.

Trust chief executive Stuart Welling said: "This is only a draft document. The aim is to provide a single service over our two main sites and the document looks at how we can do that.

"We need a significant reinvestment programme to replace inadequate buildings. Services will not survive unless we make changes."