STAFF at Worcester Royal Infirmary and Redditch's Alexandra Hospital are celebrating today after being removed from a list of unclean institutions.

A Government report said standards throughout the two hospitals were now classed as "acceptable".

A previous inspection in autumn last year had described cleanliness at the Alex and WRI's Castle Street site as poor or "red".

Standards at WRI's Newtown and Ronkswood sites and Kidderminster General Hospital were rated as good -- or "green" under the Department of Health's traffic light system.

This was the same rating as the hospitals achieved in the autumn.

All the sites run by Worcestershire Community and Mental Health NHS Trust maintained their acceptable -- or "amber" -- status.

The "Clean Hospitals" report named and shamed a total of 42 hospitals for having poor standards of hygiene as part of a Government campaign to clean up the NHS.

The list of dirty institutions was compiled after visits to 689 institutions.

The inspections found that 94 per cent had cleanliness standards that were acceptable or higher. But six per cent were deemed "poor".

Similar inspections last year found that a third of hospitals had unacceptable cleaning standards.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn said: "Despite this marked improvement, there is to be no let up in our drive to raise standards of hospital cleanliness.

"The fundamentals of care are too important to be left to chance."

A spokeswoman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said it was "pleased with the results of the latest inspections of the five hospital sites within the Trust.

"Three of our sites have maintained their 'green' - excellent - standard and the other two have made significant improvements to reach 'amber' level.

"We'll continue to maintain and improve these standards in the future."