A hospital condemned for its treatment of the elderly has been named one of the best in England for its care of the over-50s.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath were both judged as excellent in the survey for older people's magazine Saga.

An investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme last year uncovered a catalogue of problems at the Royal Sussex including elderly patients left to sit in their own urine and not given water or medication.

There were still problems when inspectors made three unannounced spot checks between November 2005 and January this year and found a diabetic patient being offered unsuitable food and a confused patient wandering outside the hospital building.

The Saga survey, published yesterday, awarded the Royal Sussex and the Princess Royal five credits out of a possible ten.

Both hospitals made it on to a list of only 26 hospitals out of 223 in the country judged excellent by respondents.

The Princess Royal came top in the South-East with the Royal Sussex a close second.

The criteria used for the survey were the quality of care, including death rates and numbers of doctors and nurses, patient experience, including cleanliness and confidence in staff, infection control and dealing with superbug MRSA, and access to services, including waiting times.

The trust says conditions on the Royal Sussex's Peel and Stewart ward, which was at the centre of the Panorama expose, have turned around.

New measures include the introduction of a malnutrition screening tool and restricted visiting times so nurses can help patients eat and drink without interruption.

Two extra full-time nurses and one part-time nurse have been employed, cleaners spend an extra two hours on the ward each day and £222,000 will be spent on revamping the bathrooms next month.

Ward manager Carol Harris was brought in one year ago to make changes. She said: "Because of the Panorama programme, we have to be absolutely open about everything. In a way we have to be better than anywhere else. We are very proud to work here."

Patient Lorraine Gleave, 44, from Lancing, on the ward for 12 days with a kidney infection, said: "The staff are really nice and always around. I've never had to use my buzzer."