Residents and three MPs have labelled health bosses a "disgrace" and called the consultation process that could lead to the closure of a A&E department a "sham".

Campaigners fear the fate of the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Haywards Heath has already been decided - before the official public consultation about its reorganisation begins in October.

More than 200 residents packed Clair Hall in Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, for a meeting to discuss the future of the NHS.

They called out furiously as representatives from West Sussex Primary Care Trust and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust said proposed changes to the cash-strapped hospitals were unavoidable.

MPs Nicholas Soames, Nick Herbert and Norman Baker attended.

Their constituents will all be affected if the PRH is downgraded.

Lewes MP Mr Baker told the meeting he knew discussions had already been held behind closed doors and none of the options open to consultation would involve the PRH being left as it was.

He said: "The consultation will merely be a tick box' exercise. If it is, the Princess Royal could be left as nothing more than a cottage hospital."

The reorganisation planned by the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority would lead to medical resources being centralised at certain hospitals, with others operating non-emergency services.

Campaigners fear the A&E and maternity departments at the PRH will close and emergency patients from the Mid Sussex area will be forced to travel to the Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH) in Brighton or East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, Surrey.

They have called for more investment in facilities at the PRH.

Matthew Taylor, medical director of the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the PRH and RSCH, said: "No change is not an option."

He said reductions in the amount of hours doctors were legally permitted to work meant it was necessary to concentrate departments at one of the two sites.

He said: "We must know there are staff available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We want to deliver a safe and effective service to our patients and that is the only way we can do it."

Mid Sussex MP Mr Soames called on residents to fight the proposals as they had against plans to downgrade the hospital two years ago.

He said: "We are not going to allow our health service to go the same way our roads and railways have gone. We will not have it."