Moving non-urgent surgical operations to the Princess Royal Hospital - as suggested in the document Modern Hospital Services for Central Sussex, from the Central Sussex Partnership Programme - and re-directing all surgical and accident emergencies to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, will not reduce waiting times for those attending A&E at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Very few who attend A&E require emergency admission. The numbers waiting to see a doctor will be increased and waiting times markedly lengthened by patients from Mid Sussex who cannot be treated in the reduced facility at the Princess Royal

Hospital.

Head injuries, sporting, domestic and industrial accidents and minor road traffic accidents will all come to the Royal Sussex.

Imagine the number of patients, for example, who attend the casualty department at the Victoria Hospital, Lewes, and have to be sent on to the County Hospital. But how many extra patients will there actually be?

In the 44-page document there are hardly any statistics at all.

If Central Sussex Partnership Programme's board members really want to share the planning of future medical services for central Sussex with the citizens of central Sussex, why is there no meaningful data, detailed or otherwise? Are they unprepared or unable to give details to allow an informed debate? It seems disrespectful to the 450,000 people who are to be affected by these plans.

Apart from the lack of statistics, some statements made are either misleading or wrong.

I have worked for 25 years as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in both Mid Sussex and Brighton and Hove and have been director of the A&E departments in both areas, so I know a bit about the subject. But the public doesn't.

Brighton and Hove needs a local hospital equipped for the needs of the local people. Sussex needs a major trauma centre for the most critically injured, centrally-located in the area it is to serve, with ready, unimpeded access from all directions.

According to the document, Haywards Heath seems to meet these requirements. There is a greenfield site and phase I of the new hospital has already been built. It's called the Princess Royal.

We must think not five or ten years, but 35 years ahead. During that time the money will become available for the development and the need for the hospital will become ever more evident as the population in Mid Sussex increases.

The present hospitals in Haywards Heath and Brighton must work together, but the emphasis for the future should be on preserving and improving the County Hospital for Brighton and Hove while developing the Princess Royal over the long term as a regional hospital centre.

To do the opposite, as is being suggested, is short-term, illogical and doomed to worsen congestion at the County Hospital.

-Barry Fern TD MA FRCS, Consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Haywards Heath