Patients have given the thumbs-up to their treatment at Sussex hospitals.

A national survey of inpatients found most rated their overall experiences in the hands of the county's doctors and nurses "excellent", "very good" and "good".

Of respondents attending the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton or the Princess Royal in Haywards Heath, 93 per cent rated their care among these top three bands.

Four per cent gave their care a "fair" rating and just two per cent considered it "poor".

Of those treated at Eastbourne District General, the Hastings Conquest, Worthing and Southlands Hospitals, 95 per cent rated their overall experience excellent, very good or good, four per cent declared it fair and one per cent poor.

The massive majority of Sussex patients said they had been treated with "dignity and respect" while at hospital.

Asked whether their rooms or wards had been clean, 94 per cent of patients in Brighton and Haywards Heath hospitals said they had been "very clean" or "fairly clean". Five per cent said "not very" clean and one per cent "not at all clean".

In Eastbourne and Hastings, 95 per cent said very or fairly clean, while in Worthing and Southlands the figure was 89 per cent - with ten per cent judging their ward "not very clean" and two per cent "not at all clean".

Hospital food in Sussex could still improve, the survey suggests. A third of patients at the Royal Sussex or Princess Royal could only bring themselves to rate their meals "fair", while 18 per cent said they had been "poor".

At Eastbourne DGH and the Conquest, 29 per cent said the food was fair and 15 per cent poor. At Worthing and Southlands 36 per cent said fair and 17 per cent poor.

The figures revealed the practice of accommodating patients on mixed-sex wards is still widespread in Sussex.

When asked if they had shared a sleeping area with patients of the opposite sex when first admitted to a bed or ward, 28 per cent of patients of the Royal Sussex and Princess Royal said they had.

In Eastbourne and Hastings the proportion given a room in a mixed-sex ward was 33 per cent. In Worthing and Southlands it was 35 per cent - the 25th highest rate in England.

A spokeswoman for Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Our hospitals provide single sex accommodation for patients except in admission, critical care and paediatric areas."

Peter Coles, Chief Executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS TRust, which runs the Royal Sussex and Princess Royal, said: "We see over half a million patients each year and, whilst there is always room for improvement, I think this survey shows that the majority of our patients are positive about the care and treatment they receive."

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said: "This is the public's real verdict on the state of our NHS today. Staff should take great pride from this endorsement of the care they provide day in, day out."

The inpatient survey, carried out in last autumn by the Healthcare Commission, quizzed more than 80,000 patients across England.

Leave your comments about hospital care you have received below.