Only a handful of North-East hospitals featured in today's 'cleanliness chart' published by the Health Commission.

The commission revealed the results of visits to 99 NHS and private hospitals to check on standards of cleanliness.

Only five hospitals from our region were visited and most were relatively small mental health and community hospitals.

But York District General Hospital made it into the top band one category of hospitals by scoring 96 per cent.

The much smaller Friary Community Hospital and Health Clinic in Richmond was also in the top band with a 98 per cent rating.

North Tyneside General Hospital, the only other large acute hospital visited by the commission, featured in the band two category with a score of 89 per cent.

Clifton House community hospital, run by Selby and York Primary Care Trust, also featured in the second band with a score of 89 per cent.

The private Middleton St George mental health hospital near Darlington featured in the third band with a score of 69 per cent.

The inspectors looked at medical equipment, beds, sinks, bedpans and toilets, as well as checking for spillages, blood, general stains and dust.

Health Minister Jane Kennedy said: ''This helpful survey looked at 61 of the worst and 10 of the best performers in the NHS and 90 per cent of NHS acute hospitals had high standards of cleanliness or were considered not dirty, suggesting massive improvement."

''Of the 22 hospitals that had serious problems with refurbishment or cleanliness, 18 were in independent or NHS mental health care settings.

''We recently announced £130 million capital funding specifically to update mental health environments and will be announcing further work on enhancing the environment soon."