Hospitals in Eastbourne and St Leonards have been named some of the best performing in Sussex.

East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust has been given two stars out of a possible three in the Government's annual star ratings published today.

The trust runs Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards.

It was created in April 2002 following the merger of the former Eastbourne Hospitals and Hastings and Rother NHS which were both given a one star rating last year.

The two star rating shows that according to the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), which carried out the audit, the trust is performing well overall but has not quite achieved consistently high standards.

The trust managed to hit the target for 12 hour A&E admissions but is struggling to cope with delayed discharges.

The news was not quite so good for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in and Hurstwood Park Neurosciences Centre in Haywards Heath.

It was given a one star rating which shows there is some cause for concern regarding particular key targets.

Sussex Ambulance Service dropped from two stars last year to one.

Primary Care Trusts, which are responsible for managing NHS budgets, GP and dental services and public health, were rated for the first time this year along with the newly created East Sussex County Healthcare NHS Trust, responsible for mental health services.

Bexhill and Rother PCT managed a maximum three star rating, Eastbourne Downs was given two and Sussex Downs and Weald and Hastings and St Leonards were given a one star rating.

East Sussex County Healthcare was also given one star.

East Sussex Hospitals chief executive Annette Sergeant said: "It is fantastic to see our two star rating confirming what many patients and staff have been saying over the past year "Services to patients are improving here at East Sussex Hospitals and we are already on the way to improving patient care still further.

"I am particularly pleased to see the trust buck the trend normally seen in newly merged trusts when performance usually dips.

"It is only possible thanks to the hard work and commitment of all our staff and our partners in primary care and social services across East Sussex. Everyone's efforts deserve whole hearted praise and thanks."

The trust is working with local partner organisations in primary and social care in East Sussex to bring its financial budgets back into line.

There is a recovery plan agreed by all parties within the local health community to reduce the financial deficit in the county which should help improve the financial performance of the trust in next year's star ratings.

East Sussex County Healthcare chief executive Stephanie Parkes-Crick said: "I am naturally disappointed at the organisation only being awarded one star overall but pleased that in its first year of operation the trust has generally performed above the national average on the services we offer to local people.

"We welcome the star rating system as a way of driving up performance not only in our trust but also throughout the whole of the NHS.

"We are not complacent and we will seek to do all we can in the year ahead to bring about change in the areas assessed in need of improvement."

Bexhill and Rother PCT chief executive Rick Stern said: "We are delighted with the rating which reflects the commitment of our staff in the front line to improve services for patients.

"The rating reflects the excellence of local general practice, with shorter waiting times and much higher levels of satisfaction amongst patients than elsewhere in the country.

"It shows we are doing very well at improving health, with encouraging results for how we are helping people to stop smoking, running screening programmes and vaccinating people against flu.

"We know there are still many areas where we can further improve performance, but this is a very encouraging start."

The annual ratings are based on a range of performance indicators including financial management, clinical care, patient access and care and staff relations.

Targets for ambulance trust include response times while PCTs are assessed in areas including waiting times, smoking cessation services and access to GPs.

Sussex Ambulance failed to hit its target for answering 999 Category A calls within eight minutes.

Chief executive David Griffiths said: "I am pleased that the clinical care provided by the staff of the Sussex Ambulance has been recognised once again but disappointed that our management capacity is stretched to such an extent that some of our plans in other areas have not progressed as far as we would have wished.

"We will continue to work in conjunction with our staff and colleagues in other parts of the NHS in Sussex to improve in the areas in which we recognise further progress has to be made."

There have been mixed fortunes for other hospitals in Sussex.

The specialist Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead has kept its maximum three stars which means it can continue its plans to achieve controversial foundation hospital status and have more freedom from Whitehall.

It means the specialist hospital is able to press ahead with plans to achieve controversial foundation hospital status and have more freedom from Whitehall control.

St Richards Hospital in Chichester was given a two star rating while Worthing and Southlands and Surrey and Sussex, which runs Crawley Hospital, were both given one star.

Health Secretary John Reid said: "The purpose of this exercise is not to condemn or shame those trusts who fail to make the grade on any particular indicator but to help them overcome local difficulties and offer better services for patients in the future."

British Medical Association chairman James Johnson said nobody should use star ratings to judge how well a hospitals was doing and was unfair on low-rated trusts as it affected public confidence in them.