The Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) has referred the plans to the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson.

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This means the proposed changes, which could see two out of three hospitals downgraded, will be put on hold.

The JHOSC, which is made up of Sussex local authorities, has been examining the plans put forward by West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Brighton and Hove PCT.

The JHOSC has also scrutinised the PCTs' decisions and how they were made.

West Sussex PCT chief executive John Wilderspin said: "It is disappointing that the JHOSC has chosen to refer the PCTs' decisions to the Secretary of State but we respect their scrutiny throughout the Fit for the Future consultation and decision making process.

"We now welcome further external scrutiny and look forward to working with the Independent Review Panel (IRP).

"Like the JHOSC, we also want what's best for local people and we want the decision to be the right one for people living in West Sussex and Brighton and Hove."

On the evidence available, the committee said this week it believed reconfiguring acute services was not in the interests of the county's health service.

The committee was concerned over the lack of clarity on what services would be at which hospitals and the impact on services provided at hospitals outside the county.

There was also a lack of clinical consensus for the proposals, which made it impossible for the committee to be assured that the proposals are clinically safe and sustainable.

The changes were felt to leave the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust, which manages St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, in a position which the PCT considered might not be financially sustainable and unlikely to meet the standards required of a Foundation Trust in breach of government policy.

This would also have applied to Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust had Worthing Hospital been downgraded.

Finally the PCT had failed to satisfy the committee that it had fully explored alternative options for the retention of consultant led maternity services at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and St Richard's.

It added the PCT had not taken into full account recent evidence regarding the potential clinical and financial sustainability of smaller consultant-led obstetric units, which could make this service in Chichester, Worthing and Haywards Heath.