Nurses and midwives are furious that transport will not be provided when their departments move from Crawley Hospital next year.

The maternity and special care baby unit will be the first services to move to East Surrey Hospital at Redhill on January 24, under plans by Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust to downgrade Crawley Hospital.

The 50 midwives and auxiliary nurses said the trust should provide transport between the sites.

Staff-side co-ordinator Min Chadd said the extra travelling time of at least an hour was dismissed by management but would cause serious problems for staff.

She said: "In some cases it will make it impossible for staff to do their current hours due to childcare arrangements or rural locations. This will further exacerbate staff shortages."

She said the offer of a public mileage rate of 23p - the lowest rate for staff able to use their cars - would not cover the cost and was unacceptable.

She said: "We were reassured throughout the discussions on service moves that transport of staff and visitors would be given priority. It was agreed that a minibus service was essential.

"The trust has announced that this has now been postponed for up to three years because of financial reasons."

A trust spokeswoman said: "We will take whatever steps we feel are appropriate to ensure we can get our midwives to East Surrey Hospital.

"We are looking at all the options and midwives who drive the extra miles to Redhill will be compensated."

She said the trust would continue to keep staff updated on transport issues involving the maternity move.

Chris Bird, of Crawley Hospital Campaign, which is opposed to the transfer of services from Crawley, said staff would leave unless the transport policy was improved.