The finance director of a Mid Sussex hospital facing a debt crisis has resigned.

Chris Williams has left the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath less than a month after announcing the Mid Sussex NHS Trust could be £4.5 million in the red by March.

Hospital staff are reeling from news of his departure.

Many expected his guiding hand to steer them through the latest crisis and oversee the trust's controversial merger with Brighton and Hove Health Care NHS Trust in April.

Mr Williams, who had been in the job for nine years, warned senior executives of looming debts at a meeting last month, saying it was on a scale "quite unknown for our trust in all its history".

The hospital has overspent on bed-blockers, prescription drugs and paying expensive agency nurses to cover vacancies.

Mr Williams secured a £1 million interest-free loan from the Department of Health to stave off immediate pressures but warned there could be no money to repay the loan in March.

A spokesman for the trust confirmed Mr Williams had retired and his replacement, Richard Hathaway from Chichester Hospital, was in place.

A hospital worker said: "It came as a real shock to most people here.

"I don't think many people know the exact circumstances of why he left but it was a shock to a lot of us."

Last month, executives at the hospital held a workshop to identify any possible means of reducing the debt.

There are 52 bed-blockers taking up places in the hospital's 249 acute beds.

In-patient waiting lists are 35 per cent over target and some routine operations have been cancelled.

Stefan Cantore, the hospital's chief executive, said Mr Williams had left on good terms.