Hospitals in Sussex at risk of losing vital services have today been praised by a Governemnt health watchdog.

Patient care at Worthing Hospital and St Richard's in Chichester was ranked good by the Healthcare Commission.

But inspectors said both trusts have had serious problems with their finances and described their use of resources as "weak", the lowest score possible.

Jeanne Gaul, 49, from Sompting, who is campaigning to keep services at Worthing Hospital, said: "These results show there should be a rethink.

"What is the point of transferring facilities from a good hospital to one which is seen as only fair. The whole thing needs to be looked at again."

The trusts were assessed for their quality of services and use of resources.

Each was given a ranking of excellent, good, fair or weak in the two categories.

The commission's annual performance ratings are a change from the star-rating system introduced five years ago and are a tougher measure of how well or poorly NHS trusts are doing.

There was a mixed performance across the rest of Sussex, with Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which provides services at Crawley Hospital, given a weak rating for both areas.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, which runs the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, was branded weak for its use of resources and fair for the quality of its services.

East Sussex Hospitals, which runs Eastbourne District General and the Conquest in Hastings, was rated fair for quality of services and weak for use of resources.

Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Trust in East Grinstead, which runs specialist plastic surgery and burns facilities, was given a fair rating for quality of services while its use of resources was deemed excellent.

The former Sussex Ambulance Service, which has since been merged into the South East Coast Ambulance Service with Kent and Surrey, was given a good rating for quality of services and fair for use of resources.

Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust, and the Royal West Sussex trust, which runs St Richard's, are facing serious financial problems and are having to reduce beds and axe posts to save money. They are also, along with the Princess Royal and East Sussex Hospitals, facing losing accident and emergency, maternity and intensive care services as part of a review of all hospital facilities across Sussex to save money.

Lewes MP Norman Baker, some of whose constituents travel to Haywards Heath and Brighton for treatment while others use Eastbourne District General Hospital, said: "It is clear the NHS in Sussex is in crisis and the management of resources is poor.

"The idea of transferring services from the Princess Royal to Brighton is appalling when it is clear the Royal Sussex is not coping as it is."

The commission found Worthing's children's services were fair, as was its management of medicines, but it failed when it came to cutting down on MRSA cases.

It hit the target of making sure almost all A&E visitors were seen, treated and either discharged or admitted within four hours and the number of bed-blockers in its hospitals is low.

All patients with suspected cancer wait a maximum of one month from diagnosis to treatment and the results of a patient survey were satisfactory.

St Richard's hit its A&E waiting target, the maximum onemonth cancer waiting target and successfully reduced its number of bed-blocking patients.

But it underachieved when it came to MRSA targets.

East Sussex Hospitals' children's services were fair but its medicines management weak.

It failed to cut down on bedblocking patients and underachieved when it came to MRSA figures but it met the A&E wait target and one-month cancer wait.

The poorest performer was Surrey and Sussex which failed in A&E waits, underachieved with MRSA rates and received poor patient survey results.

Worthing and Southlands chief executive Stephen Cass said: "We are all aware of the action we have taken since April to balance the books. The weak scoring was expected but I am pleased to say the trust is now on course to be in financial balance by April 2007.

"The good rating for quality of service is excellent news and reflects the continued hard work and commitment by staff to raise standards."

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare director of nursing Irene Scott said: "Our weak score is a true reflection and a reminder of how we performed over a year ago and we are not at all surprised we have been scored weak for this period.

"I would like to reassure our service users and our staff who have worked so hard that we are in fact a trust which has significantly turned itself around over the last ten months and this has been demonstrated in our ability to meet all current targets."

A formal consultation on proposed changes to hospital services in Sussex will be published by the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority later this year.

East Sussex Hospitals chief executive Kim Hodgson said: "Our weak score for use of resources is as a result of having a financial deficit carried over from previous years."

  • How healthy is your town? Read our special report in The Argus today