What a difference a year makes. In 2001, Brighton Health Care NHS Trust was rated as the worst in the South-East, with no stars under the Government's new ratings scheme.

Now it has two stars and is only beaten in Sussex by the Queen Victoria Hospital at East Grinstead, which is much smaller and more specialist.

Congratulations are due to chief executive Stuart Welling and his team for pulling around the renamed Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

It's not easy running a trust whose chief hospital, the Royal Sussex County, is under immense pressure with high demand by patients, a huge rebuilding scheme and problems in recruiting and retaining staff.

It's also hard turning around a large and complex organisation which had severe difficulties.

There are still plenty of intractable problems, including unacceptably long waits in the accident and emergency department and cancer patients having to wait too long to see consultants.

But the number of patients waiting for heart operations is commendably low and the general standard of care is good.

Now the focus shifts to other trusts in the county which have a disappointing one-star rating, some having slipped from two stars.

Brighton can now look down on these trusts and the verdict is they could, and should, do better.