More money should be pumped into a hospital where staff morale has slumped amid a "climate of fear", it was claimed today.

Concern is growing for the future of the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, after plans to downgrade the accident and emergency department were revealed by the Argus.

Under the controversial proposals, some casualty patients, including crash victims, would be taken instead to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton.

Mid Sussex district councillor Anne Jones said: "We waited 40 years for the new hospital in Haywards Heath. When we got it, we got a hospital that was under-resourced. I think there's a lot of anger about that.

"I went there in February during the 'flu epidemic and a doctor was in tears. She said: 'We can't go on'. They had patients on trolleys because they didn't have beds for them.

"I was really angry for her that she had worked such long hours. She said, 'If I make the wrong decision because of the hours, I'm going to be sued'.

"We've got brilliant consultants and brilliant staff but we are paying them a dis-service. What we need to do is to resource them properly.

"The staff can't speak out because they're worried about their jobs, but they are very concerned. When you lose them, you are losing people who are very difficult to replace."

David Hayman, from Burgess Hill, who hopes to join the Save Our A&E committee fighting the plans, said: "You go up there and start talking to a nurse or a sister and there's a sort of fear. They go on the defensive because they are too frightened to talk."

Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames said some of the extra NHS money promised by the Government could be used to improve the Princess Royal.

"If it is not, the Prime Minister's words will be seen to be totally hollow and everyone in the Mid Sussex area will feel betrayed by such foolish shortsightedness."

Stuart Welling, chief executive of Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, said: "There is a need for us to look at integrating services. Inevitably there will be issues which are contentious and difficult for local people in Brighton and Haywards Heath to come to understand.

"There are not fixed views about what is going to happen. This is a genuine attempt to engage and explain to people why we need to make changes."