The chairman of the busiest hospital trust in Sussex has admitted it has considered closing wards as part of a drive to save money.

Glynn Jones from Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was speaking at a West Sussex County Council health scrutiny committee in Chichester yesterday.

Mr Jones said the move was a road the trust did not want to go down because of the effect it would have on accident and emergency departments, which already have to work hard to find beds for patients who need to be admitted.

Brighton and Sussex and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Crawley Hospital, were called before the committee to explain the reasons behind their poor performance in the annual Government star ratings and what they were doing to improve things.

Both trusts were given a zero rating out of a possible maximum of three for two years running.

Brighton and Sussex ended the last financial year £10 million in the red and faces a deficit of almost £17 million this year.

The financial crisis is even worse at Surrey and Sussex, which ended last year at £31 million over budget and expects to have an overspend of £37 million this year.

In response to questions from the committee, Mr Jones and Brighton trust director of planning and performance Amanda Philpott said fewer patients were now waiting for operations or appointments and more people were being given the chance to choose and book their own appointments.

However there has been an unexpectedly high number of patients visiting the trust's accident and emergency department, which has meant staff have struggled to meet the Government target of seeing, treating and dealing with 98 per cent of patients within four hours.

Its financial worries are still a major concern and job losses are on the cards, At Surrey and Sussex, chief executive Gary Walker said difficult short term decisions had been made to save money such as cutting the number of operations done at Crawley so there would be less need for expensive agency staff to cover holidays and sickness.

He said the trust had spent more than £21 million on agency and bank workers in the last financial year and he was working to cut it to £15 million.

Committee chairman Robin Smith said it was clear the trusts were in a difficult position. He said they were bound by Government rules to break even by the end of each financial year but they were not getting enough funding to pay for the services they provided.

Committee member James Walsh said: "There has been a chronic underfunding of the health service and it is something that needs to be addressed."

The committee is planning to write to the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority and the Department of Health about the financial pressures faced by the NHS.

It has also called for Brighton and Sussex to be given more time to pay off its overspend so it does not get into any further financial trouble.

The committee said it would be keeping a watch over the performance of both trusts and monitor their progress.