The front-page headline of The Argus (September 25) stated Brighton Health Care NHS Trust gave "The worst care in the country".

My experience of the services given by the trust has been second to none.

Last year, my two-year-old son didn't wake up one morning and was taken by excellent ambulance paramedics to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, where he was given expert and very supportive care.

How dare Alan Milburn introduce a star-rating system to measure the performance of our acute hospitals that has nothing to do with prioritising clinical care for the patients?

I don't know who is advising our minister but it is clear he or she knows little about the way hospitals need to be managed.

For example, the star system apparently takes into account breast cancer treatment but not prostate cancer.

Thankfully, our local hospital will prioritise treatment according to need and not arbitrary star systems.

It is also pointless rating acute hospitals in isolation from the services with which they interlink.

Social services are not under scrutiny and yet they are blocking beds that should be available to cancer, A&E and operation waiting-list patients.

Within the same equation, our GP services should be under scrutiny because they refer patients to our hospitals.

The shortage of nurses and doctors is not the responsibility of Brighton Health Care.

It is the lack of planning and investment in training, retention and recruitment by governments of the past and the high cost of housing in Brighton and Hove that lead to shortages of staff.

Headlines such as this will do nothing to improve the morale of those dedicated staff who work in our local hospital.

So come on, citizens of Brighton and Hove, be supportive of your local hospital and staff. Be wary of arbitrary star systems and be critical of the headlines.

-S J Brennan, Brighton