Patients at Watford General Hospital have had their stays ruined by poor food, grubby conditions, a lack of information and even noisy staff, a new report suggests.

The Care Quality Commission, which surveyed some 66,000 patients who had stayed at UK Hospitals during 2010, has published a detailed set of reports measuring the successes and failures of 161 acute and specialist trusts.

The commission has now collated patent responses to show the best and worst performing 20 per cent of trusts in each category, along with the remaining average performing trusts.

Overall, the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which also manages St Albans and Hemel Hempstead hospitals, was rated in the bottom 20 per cent of trusts in 38 out of 64 categories. It was ranked as an intermediate performer in the remaining 26.

It fared particularly badly on issues of A&E privacy, late night staff noise, food, confidence and trust in doctors, communication and patient respect.

Patients also expressed concerns about poor hygiene and noise from fellow patients.

The trust, however, scored far better on issues of sex segregation, patient safety and admission date choice.

The figures are based on the responses of 367 patients who stayed over night in June, July and August and were over 16 years of age. Some 44 per cent of those eligible completed the survey – slightly less than the 50 average recorded nationwide.

The trust said the report demonstrated that it had improved or consolidated its performance when compared to last year’s figures.

Natalie Forrest, director of nursing and patients’ champion said: “We are investing in our staff so that they can invest in our patients. We have already made significant improvements in our outpatient service, but, as this survey shows, there is still room for improvement in the experience of our inpatients.

“This will not happen overnight, but we have excellent professional staff who are all committed to proving a safe, first class service to our patients”