Two of Norfolk's emergency departments have scored among the very best in the country in a new survey of the care they provide.

The James Paget Hospital in Gorleston and the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital have both been told they are "exceeding expectations".

The findings were made in a survey of patients conducted by the Care Quality Commission, the national regulator of hospital and care settings.

The survey, which was conducted in February, gave participating departments scores out of 10 for their overall experience based on questionnaires given to patients.

Staff from the emergency department ofnthe Norfolk and Norwich University HospitalStaff from the emergency department of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (Image: NNUH)

Patients were asked a range of more than 40 questions about their experiences, including questions about how long they were waiting to be seen, what communication they received from staff and their satisfaction with their care.

And both hospitals came away with overall scores of 8.1 out of 10, which placed them in the top few departments in the country.

In particular, the Paget was named as a national outlier as one of eight in the country judged to be performing "better than expected" - despite it having slower response times than national averages.

In October, 64.3pc of its patients were either discharged or admitted within the four hour target, compared with a national average of 73pc and a target of 78pc.

Jo Segasby, chief executive, said: "This is an excellent set of results in an important survey, that gives us detailed insight into patients' experiences when visiting our emergency department.

"As with any survey, we will look at the results in detail and identify areas where we can improve further for the benefit of our patients and staff."

At the N&N, the department is exceeding both national averages and targets, with 78.9pc of patients dealt with within the four hour target.

Johnny Wells, senior matron of the emergency department at the N&N, said: "These are fantastic results which are down to all the hard work the team has been doing these last few years.

"It is great to see that we scored better than most of our comparable emergency departments."

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn was not assessed during the survey but was rated as 7.8 out of 10 in a previous survey.