Morale among nurses in a city hospital has hit an all-time low after a raft of transfers and threatened redundancies were announced.

Cardiac staff at the Royal Sussex County Hospital met Des Turner, MP for Brighton Kemptown, yesterday to protest against their treatment.

Twenty nurses voiced their concerns to Mr Turner in the Millennium Wing of the hospital, on Eastern Road, Brighton, without the backing of the hospital's management.

Staff say that the cardiac department is set to lose 14 of its 20 specialist nurses and that patients' lives could be lost as a result.

One of the nurses, who did not wish to be named, said: "They have just expected that we will put up and shut up, and people are angry.

"Morale is very, very low, they feel angry after working for all these years.

"The patients will suffer because the people who have skills are going to be lost.

"The nurses are upset for ourselves and worried about the patients.

"We have just not been listened to and we just do not feel that it has been taken on board. We have run out of options."

Mr Turner said he was extremely concerned about the pressures on nursing staff and has promised to visit the hospital again next week to discuss solutions.

He said: "The cardiac centre is too important and too busy to suffer substantial cuts. They feel very pressurized and it is not good for morale. I think they are feeling rather used.

"They feel they are being downgraded or made redundant. I am really concerned about this, there are very significant staff cuts.

"The Labour Government has made available substantial increases in resources but I do have to say that the resources haven't been well managed. We cannot blame the trust for everything. A lot of this relates to national NHS management."

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust ended last year with a £13 million deficit. Including previous debts, the trust is around £23 million in the red.

The hospital declined to comment.