The Royal Surrey County Hospital achieved zero stars

The Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead was awarded the top result for the second year in a row.

Elsewhere in the two counties hospitals in Brighton dropped from two stars in 2002 to only one this year.

And the Royal Surrey County Hospital scored the lowest with zero stars.

The two star rating of the newly created East Sussex Hospitals Trust is an improvement on the two trusts that merged to form it which both only received one star last year.

Sussex and Surrey trusts ratings The Queen Victoria 3 Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals 2 East Sussex Hospitals 2 Royal West Sussex 2 Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals 1 Surrey & Sussex Healthcare 1 Worthing and Southlands Hospitals 1 Royal Surrey County Hospital 0

Annette Sergeant, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive, said: "It is fantastic to see our two star rating confirming what many patients and staff have been saying over the past year.

"The improvement from one star to two stars is a tremendous effort."

It is the first time the figures have been compiled by the Commission for Health Improvement.

Each acute or specialist trust is given a star rating from three to zero.

The targets include A&E waits, financial management, cleanliness and the numbers of patients waiting longer than standard times for inpatient and outpatient procedures.

Ambulance trusts are also graded with the star system.

On of the targets is whether they respond to life-threatening calls within eight minutes.

Surrey Ambulance Trust managed to achieve three stars but Sussex Ambulance Trust only scored one.