Two hospital wards are to temporarily close at one of the largest hospitals in Sussex.

Blackwell ward and Mirlees ward at the Conquest Hospital, St Leonards, will shut later this month, closing 30 beds in total.

The move was announced at yesterday's board meeting of East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Conquest and the Eastbourne DGH.

Officials said there was less demand on beds in the two wards because of a rise in day surgery.

In addition, improvements in discharging patients has meant fewer patients are requiring beds for overnight stays.

Measures by Primary Care Trusts and health partners to cut unnecessary hospital admissions has also lessened demand for the wards.

The move will save the trust - which is facing a £4.5 million overspend this financial year - £200,000.

Chief nurse Cathy Stone said the 30 affected staff, 14 on Mirlees and 16 on Blackwell, would be redeployed to other areas.

She said: "We face an extremely challenging time ahead when difficult decisions have to be made.

"Our focus will be to look at how we can do things differently, making the service more efficient while improving patients' stay in hospital."

However, Trevor Seeman, chairman of the East Sussex Patient and Public Involvement Forum, condemned the decision.

He said Blackwell ward was highlighted as a centre of excellence for diabetes by the Clinical Services Review.

Mr Seeman said: "I do think that to consider closing the one dedicated ward to diabetes is, to my mind, bloody stupid."

But medical director David Scott said the "excellent" diabetes service would continue in a different way.

Non-executive director Melanie Rycroft said that treatment would not be compromised and that it was "time to move with the times".

The board was passed round a copy of yesterday's County edition of The Argus highlighting the rise in bedblocking at the trust.

The board heard that more than 28 per cent of the 91 bedblocking patients had been in hospital for 28 days or more.

New trust chief executive Kim Hodgson said she will be meeting the director of East Sussex County Council social services to highlight the problem.

Most of the patients fit for discharge but with nowhere to go are for social services reasons.