AIREDALE General Hospital has received top marks for its care of patients.

According to a national survey published this week, 81 per cent of patients believed overall care at the Steeton hospital was excellent or very good.

The survey, carried out by the Healthcare Commission, puts the hospital in the top 20 per cent of the country for nursing care, waiting for a bed, the choice of food and patient dignity.

However, the hospital scored less well on admission, including being given a choice of dates, and information for patients in the emergency department.

The hospital also scored poorly on patients receiving copies of letters sent between the hospital doctors and GPs.

Bridget Fletcher, Airedale's director of nursing, said the survey reinforced the hospital's bid to become a foundation trust.

"The results show how Airedale Hospital is highly regarded by our local community and gives us confidence that our patients will want to support us and work with us in the future as a foundation trust."

She added that the hospital had worked very hard to improve how it assessed and admitted patients who needed either planned or urgent care.

"Our medical and nursing teams have worked closely together across all areas of the trust, in both accident and emergency and the wards, to provide a smooth and very efficient system to get our patients to the right place where they can get the right care as soon as possible," she said.

In the last year, the hospital has made significant changes to the way it organises its wards to give the best possible care for its patients.

Miss Fletcher said: "We also have a new Elective Inpatient Surgical Entry Unit (ELIPSE), which means patients coming for planned surgery or procedures are admitted on the day of that surgery, so it is more convenient for the patient and this in turn, impacts on how quickly our patients are able to recover on a specialist ward after their surgery."

She added: "We work very hard to make sure our patients get high quality care that is personalised to them and these results clearly show our patients' excellent opinion of their care."

The survey took place in autumn last year and involved 80,000 patients at 167 acute and specialist trusts across the country.

Anna Walker, chief executive of the Healthcare Commission, said: "We hear a lot of negative comment about the NHS, but we must never forget that most patients have consistently rated the overall quality of their care as good or excellent.

"Staff should remember this as it shows most patients value the good work they do."

Airedale NHS Trust is currently consulting on its foundation bid and public meetings will take place at South Craven School, Cross Hills, on Wednesday and Settle's Victoria Hall on Thursday May 31. Both meetings start at 6pm.