An ambulance service boss has said he could not guarantee seriously injured and ill patients would not die as a result of longer journeys to hospital.

The blunt life or death question was posed at a specially called meeting of Mid Sussex District Council last night which saw members object to any changes in the existing casualty arrangements at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

Councillors said they doubted claims by the health chiefs that "blue light" ambulance journey times to hospital would only be, on average, 11 minutes longer if patients went to the Royal Sussex County Hospital at Brighton instead of the Princess Royal.

Coun David Shevels, from Burgess Hill, looked at Richard Penney, Director of Planning and Service Development for the Sussex Ambulance Service NHS Trust and said: "I would like him to give a guarantee that the extra time taken to get to Brighton compared to Mid Sussex would not cost lives."

Mr Penney said: "I can't give the guarantee that you ask."

Then, referring to Charles Turton, medical director for Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, who was also at the meeting, Mr Penney added: "I don't think Charles can give that either."

Mr Turton pointed out that in the future there might equally be added risks for patients being treated by non-specialists if the service continued at Haywards Heath.

He said: "We could not guarantee that some people would not die because they received generalist care instead of specialist care."

The issue of survival on longer journeys into Brighton was one of the key points raised by councillors in a tough two and a half hour quizzing of members of the panel suggesting the changes.

Coun Alan Beal said: "Eleven extra minutes to get down to Brighton? An awful lot of people would seriously question that."

Coun Anne Jones said: "That eleven minutes really worries me."

Coun Peter Martin said he had seen ambulances doing U-turns at Seven Dials trying to get through traffic to the hospital and said: "God help anybody trying to get there from Mid Sussex. I feel there is a great danger of people not surviving those extra minutes, however many or few those minutes may be."

Coun Stephen Hillier said: "Paramedics must always have the option of going to the nearest hospital, in other words the Princess Royal."

Princess Royal chief executive Roger Greene admitted transport issues needed a more detailed look but stressed the suggestions were only at discussion level. He said: "We accept that we need to be far more confident around travel times that we build into these models in the future."

But he added that change was needed to meet issues that could jeopardise services at the Princess Royal and said: "There are things coming over the horizon we cannot ignore. What we must avoid is spiralling into crisis."

District councillor Lesley Wilkins told the panel: "The people of Mid Sussex do not want to lose their A and E. Please read the mood of Mid Sussex."

Coun Andrew MacNaughton, who chaired the meeting, said: "I believe this council will fight to retain what we have got. I think it is the voice of this council. It will fight for the maintenance of services and improvements for Mid Sussex and the Princess Royal."

The decision to oppose any loss of the services at the hospital was taken by the meeting at Haywards Heath.

But all 54 council members were invited and nearly all were there.

Earlier Mr Turton, who lives in Mid Sussex, said the amount of time patients spent in an ambulance was relatively small against the time between admission and surgery which was on average nine hours, because of the need to stabilise patients before surgery.

And he stressed the benefits of being taken to specialists, adding: "It's no good going to any old hospital, you have to go to the hospital that can do the best for you."

Thousands have signed the Argus Save our A and E petition, including some councillors at last night's meeting.