Two hospital trust boards have decided to press ahead with plans to merge in a bid to avoid "ruin".

Eastbourne Hospitals and Hastings and Rother NHS Trusts voted unanimously to move on to the consultation stage.

The decisions were reached separately after members had considered the findings of a board set up last year to look at the merger's implications.

The report concluded a merger was the best of four options.

The boards were concerned about the small size of the hospitals at Eastbourne and Hastings, a fact highlighted in a report by the British Medical Association (BMA).

It stated that hospitals should be serving populations above 450,000 in order to enable greater specialisation by consultants, give junior doctors broader experience and reduce junior doctors' hours to 48 a week.

Eastbourne Hospitals chief executive Alan Randall said even when merged, Eastbourne and Hastings would still fall short of the BMA's recommendation.

He said it was important for smaller hospitals, like the Eastbourne District General Hospital and Conquest Hospital in Hastings, to adapt or face ruin.

He said: "National issues, as outlined in the BMA report, all mean smaller DGHs are feeling threatened, neither Eastbourne nor Hastings want to see the same fate affecting us."

Geoff Haynes, chief executive of Hastings and Rother NHS trust, said: "If we don't act now, we face the possibility that our hospitals will be downgraded and lose their DGH status as has happened in other areas, such as Canterbury and Crawley."

Four months of public consultation will now be held before a final decision in December.