Four Sussex hospitals were today branded dirty by a team of Government inspectors.

The hospitals were included in a list of 42 institutions named and shamed by ministers for having poor standards of cleanliness.

The hospitals listed were Southlands Hospital in Shoreham, All Saints in Eastbourne, St Anne's Centre in Hastings, and Ashenhill and Southview at Hailsham.

All the hospitals were rated poor or "red", which meant they had not improved on the rating they were given after a similar inspection last autumn.

There was better news for Brighton Health Care NHS Trust's Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, which was upgraded from poor to good or "green".

Brighton General Hospital, the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Sussex Eye Hospital were all upgraded from poor in the autumn to acceptable or "amber", along with Worthing Hospital.

Crowborough Memorial, Eastbourne District General Hospital and Uckfield Community Hospital all maintain their good ratings, as do Bexhill Hospital, Rye Memorial Care Centre and Conquest Hospital in Hastings.

The Princess Royal in Haywards Heath and St Richard's in Chichester were also rated green.

The list of dirty institutions was compiled after visits to 689 sites nationwide.

The inspections found that 94 per cent had cleanliness standards that were acceptable or higher but six per cent were deemed "poor".

Similar inspections last year found that a third of hospitals had unacceptable cleaning standards.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn said: "Despite this marked improvement, there is to be no let-up in our drive to raise standards of hospital cleanliness.

"The fundamentals of care are too important to be left to chance."

Lee Soden, director of facilities at Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, said he was pleased with the rating but warned there was still a long way to go.

A spokesman for Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust said: "We are obviously very disappointed at the rating for Southlands Hospital and will be working hard over the next few months to try to find out what can be done.

"The survey was carried out a couple of months ago and we have already made considerable efforts to improve the decor and carry out work on the flooring.

"We are pleased, however, with the news that Worthing Hospital has been upgraded and will continue to work towards achieving a green rating."

All the red rated hospitals have until this autumn to improve their environment.

Action plans are being drawn up and specialist support teams made up of experienced NHS staff will be drafted in to help.