Sussex's strategic health authority (SHA) is to be merged into a larger organisation in a bid to boost frontline services, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has announced.

More money would be available for patient care under the changes, Ms Hewitt said as she unveiled plans to reduce the number of SHAs across the country from 28 to ten.

Surrey and Sussex, and Kent and Medway will become the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority, while Thames Valley and Hampshire and Isle of Wight will become the South Central Strategic Health Authority.

Ms Hewitt said: "These improvements to the local NHS will mean more money for frontline services and better care for patients."

She said the changes would result in a more streamlined form of management and administration and cut out unnecessary bureaucracy.

She was speaking as chief executives of primary care trusts (PCTs) and health authorities met Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss how to bring the NHS back into financial balance.

NHS job losses announced in recent weeks have topped 7,000 and the total NHS deficit for this year is expected to be £623 million. Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "It's time for a turnaround team for the Department of Health.

"This morning's emergency summit is presented by the Government as an opportunity to tell hospitals to improve their performance. In reality, it needs to be hospitals telling the Government how to radically improve their management."

Strategic health authorities are responsible for developing plans for improving services in their area.

The shake-up is part of a wider reform of the NHS in Sussex.

Proposals include merging Sussex Ambulance Service with Surrey and Kent to form a three-county ambulance service.

Other plans include merging the county's ten primary care trusts into three, with a PCT for Brighton and Hove and East and West Sussex respectively.

Last month The Argus revealed Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is cutting 325 posts as part of plans to save more than £10 million over the next year.

The trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital, the Sussex Eye Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital and Hurstwood Park Neurosciences Centre in Haywards Heath, is £11.3 million in the red.

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Crawley Hospital, is cutting 400 posts as part of plans to bring a deficit of more than £41 million under control.