Two East Sussex hospitals' minor injuries units could be closed at night as part of a health shake-up.

Health bosses say the units at Crowborough War Memorial Hospital and Uckfield Community Hospital are hardly used after about 10pm.

They plan to extend the services provided by the units during the day to encourage more people to use them.

They say this will ease pressures on major A&E departments and GPs in Sussex.

Planned changes include having nurses working in the units qualified as emergency nurse practitioners.

Practitioners are able to prescribe certain medicines and treatments for patients and order and interpret X-rays.

The opening hours for Crowborough would be 8am to 8pm daily and Uckfield would open for two hours longer until 10pm.

Both units are currently open 24 hours a day.

The changes will bring both hospitals in line with the minor injuries unit at Lewes Victoria Hospital which is only open during the day. All three hospitals are managed by Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust.

Chief executive Fiona Henniker said: "The minor injury units at both hospitals are under-used.

"There is great potential for emergency nurse practitioners to treat more local people for a wider range of minor injuries and health problems, saving many patients the journey to other hospitals.

"The way the unit at Lewes has developed also shows there would be benefits to staff, local GPs and accident and emergency departments.

"The action plan for the units is long term, over three or four years. We have invited groups to work with us on its development and on ways to encourage more people to use the units."

Dr Duncan Watney, chairman of the Friends of Crowborough Hospital, said: "We give this plan our full support and are privileged to be able to make this development our project for the coming year."

Cathy Grant, chairwoman of Uckfield Community Hospital League of Friends, said: "We are all looking forward to the enhanced facility. It is wonderful."

There were more than 10,000 attendances at the Uckfield unit between April 2000 and March 2001 and 3,076 attendances during the same period at Crowborough.

About a third of patients had to be referred to A&E departments or their GP practice for treatment.

Lewes, which already has specialist nurse practitioners, can deal with almost all its patients without referring them.

In June 2001, 968 people attended the Uckfield unit between 8am and 10pm and 14 between 10pm and 8am.

In the same month 272 people attended the Crowborough unit between 8am and 8pm and 46 between 8pm and 8am.