Hundreds of women attending hospital for breast cancer had their appointments cancelled during their course of treatment.

A Department of Health survey was completed by NHS cancer patients in Sussex in the months prior to July 2000.

The results were collated from answers given by patients using the breast cancer services of Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust and Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust.

Of the 25,772 patients surveyed in Sussex, 77 per cent responded.

The answers from patients using services within the Brighton trust proved mixed.

Nine per cent of patients said they had had an appointment cancelled or postponed, which compared with one per cent of patients surveyed in Worthing and one per cent in Eastbourne.

Seventeen per cent of Brighton patients said their condition had worsened while waiting for their first appointment.

Patients within the three trusts were asked if they were treated with dignity or respect during their first treatment but 23 per cent of Brighton patients said they were not, compared with 14 per cent for Eastbourne and 18 per cent for Worthing.

The patients were asked about the number of doctors on duty and 25 per cent of Brighton patients said they felt there were not enough while 21 per cent felt the same in Worthing and 18 per cent in Eastbourne.

Twenty-one per cent of Brighton patients said they felt there was not enough privacy during discussions, compared with ten per cent in Eastbourne and 11 per cent in Worthing.

However, there was some good news from Brighton patients, - they said they had more time with a doctor to cussing their illness compared with Eastbourne and Worthing patients.

The Sussex results, part of a national survey, were presented to Parliament on Tuesday. National cancer director Professor Mike Richards, said: "As well as highlighting existing good practice, it points to areas where individual trusts and teams can make changes to improve patients' experience of care."

A spokesman for the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust said some of the findings would be out of date as time had elapsed since the survey was taken.

The trust had also employed a second breast cancer surgeon and proposals to expand the breast cancer unit were in hand.