Health watchdogs who could hold the key to changes at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath meet to discuss the issue next week.

The Mid Downs Community Health Council represents the users of health services in Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Crawley and East Grinstead.

The group will consider the public outcry over suggested downgrading of the casualty department when it holds its meeting of the full council in Horsham on Monday.

Thousands of people have signed petitions demanding any plan to take badly-injured or sick people to Brighton instead of Haywards Heath should be abandoned.

The preferred choice of the Central Sussex Partnership to send the most serious casualty surgery patients to Brighton has so far been opposed by about 500 people at a public meeting, by Mid Sussex District Council and Lindfield Parish Council.

The CHC, which has also received complaints from the public, holds a key role because if it is unhappy about any major changes it has the power to ask Health Secretary Alan Milburn to decide the outcome.

Health bosses insist they are only putting suggestions forward for public discussion.

They said any firm proposals which might be made later would need to be subject to formal consultation.

A spokeswoman for the CHC said: "Certainly we have had quite a lot of response from people to our request for their views and comments. All the different answers need looking at very carefully.

"It is very much a discussion document at this stage."

This morning the health users' group at Burgess Hill was visiting St Peter's Primary School at Ardingly to speak to parents about the issue.

It has collected thousands of signatures in addition to The Argus petition, including more than 1,000 at the Burgess Hill Tesco store.

It proposed another option that not only should the casualty unit stay unchanged but that extra resources should be put into it.

Most of the opposition to the changes centres on increased risk to patients because of longer ambulance journey times.

At a meeting of Mid Sussex District Council last week at Haywards Heath, councillors heard there could be no guarantees that risks would not be increased because of the extra travelling times.

But it was pointed out to councillors that more lives might be saved because of the greater skill of specialist surgeons at Brighton, instead of relying on general surgeons locally.