The trust that runs St Mary's and Queen Alexandra hospitals and some services at Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport is ranked among the top 10 per cent of 165 acute trusts in England for the standard of meals served to inpatients.

In total, 457 people who stayed overnight in a Portsmouth hospital in the last year responded to the Healthcare Commission's annual inpatient survey – the largest of its kind.

And 64 per cent of them said the food they ate there was good or very good, compared with an England average of 55 per cent.

Meanwhile, 93 per cent rated their overall care as excellent, very good or good, and 95 per cent said the room or ward they stayed in was very clean or fairly clean.

However, concerns were raised by 39 per cent of respondents who said they had to share a sleeping area with someone of the opposite sex when they were first admitted – well above the 24 per cent England average.

And only 57 per cent said there were always or nearly always enough nurses on duty to care for them during their stay.

Tim Robinson, the trust's head of patient and public involvement, said: 'It's a very good indication of what some of our patients think about our services.

'We take the findings very seriously.

'There are some interesting messages that, quite clearly, people felt they needed to express, such as concerns about noise at night, issues around cleanliness and same sex wards.

'We were aware of them and work is being done to rectify them.

'However, it is important to bear in mind 457 patients responded out of more than 62,000 inpatients last year.'

He added: '(The survey] has been really helpful.

'We are now doing much more work in involving patients to try to look at where we need to develop and improve services in a more specific and scientific way.'