Campaigners fighting to retain consultant-led maternity services at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath have seized on the findings as more evidence that the downgrading proposed by the West Sussex Primary Care Trust is unnecessary and unwelcome. The PCT’s proposals would result in the PRH’s maternity unit being downgraded to a midwife-led unit, with the vast majority of expectant mothers being transferred to Brighton or Redhill.

Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames said: “The Healthcare Commission report is highly significant. Instead of painting a negative picture of an unsustainable and unviable maternity unit as the Primary Care Trust has, it commends the service as ‘best performing’. It seems extraordinary that a service rated as one of the best in the country should be downgraded and undermined instead of enhanced to provide an even better service to people in Mid Sussex”