Patients have given the thumbs-up to their treatment at Sussex hospitals, a report reveals today.

A national survey of inpatients found most rated their overall experiences in the hands of the county's doctors and nurses as "excellent", "very good" or "good".

Ninety three per cent of those attending the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton or the Princess Royal in Haywards Heath rated their care among these top three bands.

Four per cent gave their care a "fair" rating and two per cent considered it "poor".

Of those treated at Eastbourne District General, the Conquest in Hastings, Worthing and Southlands hospitals, 95 per cent rated their overall experience excellent, very good or good.

Four per cent declared it fair and one per cent poor.

The great majority of Sussex patients said they had been treated with dignity and respect in hospital.

Patients were asked whether their rooms or wards had been clean.

Ninety four per cent of those in Brighton and Haywards Heath hospitals said they had been very clean or fairly clean. Five per cent said not very clean and one per cent said not at all clean.

In Eastbourne and Hastings, 95 per cent said very or fairly clean. In Worthing and Southlands the figure was 89 per cent with the rest saying not very or not at all clean.

Hospital food in Sussex could still improve, the survey suggests. A third of patients at the Royal Sussex or Princess Royal rated their meals fair, while 18 per cent said they had been poor.

At Eastbourne District General and the Conquest, 29 per cent said the food was fair and 15 per cent said poor.

At Worthing and Southlands, 36 per cent said fair and 17 per cent poor.

The figures revealed the practice of putting patients in mixed-sex wards was still widespread in Sussex.

When asked if they had shared a sleeping area with patients of the opposite sex when first admitted to a bed or ward, 28 per cent of Royal Sussex and Princess Royal patients said yes.

In Eastbourne and Hastings, the proportion given a room in a mixed-sex ward was 33 per cent. In Worthing and Southlands it was 35 per cent, the 25th highest rate in England.

A spokeswoman for Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Our hospitals provide single-sex accommodation for patients except in admission, critical care and paediatric areas."

Peter Coles, chief executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex and Princess Royal, said: "We see more than half a million patients each year and, while there is always room for improvement, I think this survey shows that the majority of our patients are positive about the care and treatment they receive."

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said this showed the public's "real verdict" on the NHS and staff should take great pride from the endorsement of their care.

The survey, carried out last autumn by the Healthcare Commission, quizzed more than 80,000 patients across England.