Patients have given accident and emergency departments in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells a clean bill of health.

The Healthcare Commission has conducted a survey of care in casualty departments and found 88 per cent of survey respondents rated the care they got at either Maidstone or the Kent and Sussex A&E as excellent, very good, or good.

Doctors and nurses listening to patients, spending enough time with them and explaining their conditions, were other areas the trust scored highly on.

In most questions, covering waiting times, staff conduct, patient care, tests and the hospital environment, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust fell within either the 20 per cent of best performing trusts, or 60 per cent of intermediate trusts.

But areas it could improve on were the length of time it took patients to be given pain relief after requesting it and providing more privacy in reception areas.

There is also room to improve waiting times in A&E, but the was among one of the better performers nationally.

Glenn Douglas, the trust’s chief executive, said: "We are pleased patients highly rate the quality of care our hard working staff are providing them.

"We will not be satisfied, however, until all of our standards are in the top 20 per cent in all categories.

"We have put in a very wide range of new measures in recent months to improve our A&E and overall performance and we have tangible evidence that the work is bearing fruit."

Nationally the commission found most patients rated their A&E care highly but only a third of the 50,000 respondents felt they got enough information when they left A&E.