Hospitals in Brighton and Hove have been named among the top 40 in the UK.

Brighton Healthcare NHS Trust is one of three in Sussex rated in a survey published today.

Other Sussex achievers in the study are Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust and the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust which runs St Richard's Hospital in Chichester.

The study rated trusts using 13 performance targets and Department of Health data from last year which mostly covered hospital care. Figures used included mortality rates, time taken to discharge stroke patients, length of hospital stays, waiting times and the number of operations which resulted in complications.

The survey was compiled by CHKS, an international company specialising in measuring healthcare performance and looked at less than a third of UK trusts.

Stuart Welling, chief executive of Brighton Healthcare NHS Trust which runs acute services in four hospitals including the Royal Sussex County, said the study was useful.

He said: "It gives us information about areas where we can enhance our performance.

"We welcome these findings and will focus our energies on areas where we can improve."

The top 40 were selected from more than 100 UK NHS trusts which employed CHKS to measure their performances against one another.

The trusts are not ranked in a league table. Instead the study reflects the best-performing hospitals according to criteria set by CHKS.

Similar studies have been previously carried out in the US and Spain.

Graham Harries, chief executive of CHKS, said: "What all the top 40 hospitals have achieved is a high level of performance across all the indicators and that demonstrates to us and their local residents that their hospitals are well managed."

"They are all achievers of high quality care.

"For the first time we have a group of hospitals across the UK which has passed a series of rigorous tests that they themselves volunteered for."

A spokeswoman for Eastbourne District General Hospital said staff were pleased the results had recognised their hard work to bring down waiting lists.

She said: "We are always trying to cut waiting times and have made use of other community facilities to help and have also introduced evening and weekend sessions.

"The trust feels it can always learn by closely looking at our activities and we are pleased we have done so well."

A spokeswoman for the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust said data from the survey had helped them to further improve their service, particularly certain orthopaedic operations.

She said: "We have been able to use the data provided to improve patient care."