Worthing Hospital has one of the worst records in England for turning women in labour away from its maternity unit.

The unit was closed to new admissions on four days in the last year and the number of hours it was shut ranged from two to six hours at a time.

The hospital has the11th highest closure rate in England and Wales according to figures published today in The Times Good Birth Guide.

The guide is compiled by medical researchers Dr Foster who have been investigating all hospital maternity units.

A Worthing Hospital spokesman said the problems were caused by a combination of staff shortages, sickness and an occasional rush of births.

She said: "We have recently recruited more staff which should help. We never like to close to unit and only do so after considerable thought and planning.

"We ensure it is safe for the woman to go elsewhere and we work closely with colleagues at other units in Sussex."

Worthing is one of three Sussex hospitals to feature in the top 20 hospitals who have closed most often.

Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital is fourth on the list after closing 16 times in the last year.

The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath is ranked fifth after closing 13 times.

All three hospitals say they are constantly busy and staff shortages mean that midwives are working at full stretch.

This means there are occasions when the unit can no longer take in new patients because midwives are dealing with several births already.

Hospitals admit it can be upsetting for women who have been getting regular antenatal care from a hospital to be sent elsewhere when they go into labour but they insist it is only done as a last resort.

A spokesman for Royal Sussex said: "We closed the maternity unit to new admissions on 16 occasions during the year in question. Some of these were for as little as 4 hours.

"The total period over the whole year was 135 hours - in other words we were open for 98.5 per cent of the year.

"The unit is only ever closed if the senior midwife believes that client safety would be compromised if it were left open.

"It is closed when the ratio of mums-to-be to midwives causes concern. This happens when staff sickness or recruitment becomes a problem or when we get overloaded.

"We are a very busy unit with one of the highest delivery to midwife ratios in the country.

"If we do have to close, an agreed protocol is followed and expectant mums are advised to go to one of the other units with which we have a reciprocal arrangement.

"If a poorly mum turns up unannounced then we would invariably see them despite being closed as it would be possibly more risky to transfer them to another hospital."