Hospitals which were branded filthy by Government inspectors have been cleaning up their act.

Four Sussex hospitals have been removed from a Government list naming and shaming those with poor cleanliness standards.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn has congratulated the hospitals for their hard work.

Two of the hospitals, Eastbourne and County Healthcare's Ashenhill and Southview, in Hailsham, and Hastings and Rother NHS Trust's St Anne's Centre were singled out for special praise.

Both have gone straight from a poor or "red" rating to the highest excellent or "green" rating in the traffic-light system used by inspection teams.

Ashenhill and Southview had previously been branded one of the 12 dirtiest hospitals in the country.

The two other hospitals given red ratings earlier this year, Southlands in Shoreham and All Saint's in Eastbourne, have been upgraded to satisfactory or "amber".

Brighton Health Care NHS Trust has maintained its standards, staying at green for the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children and amber for the Royal Sussex County and the Sussex Eye Hospital.

Eastbourne District General Hospital, Worthing Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath have all kept their green status.

The inspection teams took into account factors, such as hygiene, litter collection and the state of bed linen. All the hospitals have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on improving their appearance and standards for patients over the last year.

St Anne's Centre and All Saint's were quickly upgraded to amber following a visit from inspectors just as the last figures were published in April and have continued to improve.

Both hospitals said they were "very satisfied" at the results and would be working to maintain their standards.

A spokesman for Southlands Hospital said it was pleased with the upgrade to amber status.

She said: "We will not rest on our laurels and are now working to achieve a green status for the hospital. The good result has been down to the hard work and efforts of all the staff."

Improvements at Southlands have included redecorating the wards and toilets, refurbishments and bringing in extra cleaners.

The traffic light ratings are the result of inspections by Patient Environment Action Teams, made up of volunteers both from within the NHS and from patient groups.

Mr Milburn said every hospital in the country had now achieved an amber or green rating.

He added: "In April, I announced national standards for hospital cleaning and that, by the autumn, no hospital would have poor standards of cleanliness.

"We have got there thanks to cleaners, porters, caretakers and ward staff led by matrons."