ACUTE wards at a New Forest hospital have been named among the best in the country.

Lymington New Forest Hospital has come top in a national audit carried out by the Society of Acute Medicine (SAM), which gave it the highest overall rating.

More than 100 UK hospitals took part in the audit, which aimed to provide a snapshot of services across the country.

Each one was asked to gather data on admissions to their acute medical units on the same day in June to gauge the extent to which they were meeting three key targets.

Lymington managed an overall rating of 85 per cent, the best figure achieved by those surveyed.

Its scores for individual targets were even higher, with 92 per cent of patients seen by a nurse within 30 minutes, 100 per cent assessed by a doctor within four hours and 92 per cent seen by a consultant within eight hours.

Dr Chris Roseveare, consultant physician at the hospital, said: “Although we are one of the smallest acute hospitals in the UK, this data demonstrates the high quality of care which is delivered by the dedicated team in the Forest Assessment Centre and Medical Admissions Unit at Lymington.

“People living in the New Forest are very fortunate to have this facility on their doorstep.”