LOCAL hospitals have achieved a two-star rating in the first NHS performance tables, published this week.

The grading, out of a possible three stars, indicates that Fairfield Hospital and Bury General are performing well overall.

Bury Health Care Trust, along with hospital trusts nationwide, was marked on its performance in 21 areas.

These included patient waiting times, financial performance, cancelled operations and hospital cleanliness.

The league table shows that the two hospitals met their targets in all but one, hospital cleanliness, of the nine categories considered most important to patients.

However, local health chiefs said this was due to the planned closure of Bury General Hospital next month and the transfer of its services to the Rochdale Old Road complex.

In total, 35 hospitals were awarded the top rating of three stars, with 103 hospitals winning two stars, 23 getting one star and 12 failing to get any.