DORSET County Hospital’s emergency department has been ranked as the best in the country in a national patient survey.

The Dorchester hospital achieved the top score in the latest national accident and emergency survey carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

In total 12 hospital trusts achieved ‘better than expected’ results for seven or more of the 35 questions in the survey.

Dorset County Hospital topped the table with 24, or 69 per cent, of results rated as ‘better than expected’.

Chief executive of the Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Patricia Miller said: “We are absolutely delighted with the results of this survey.

“It’s another piece of evidence which shows what wonderful, committed staff we have here at Dorset County Hospital.

“Well done to our emergency department team. They work extremely hard and do an amazing job every day, meeting and exceeding the expectations of our patients.”

The national survey involved 142 acute and specialist NHS trusts with a major accident and emergency department from across the country with responses received from nearly 40,00 patients.

The overall response rate was 34 per cent with 338 respondents at Dorset County Hospital giving it a response rate of 41 per cent.

For more information about the survey and results visit cqc.org.uk/content/accident-and-emergency-survey-2014