Many NHS trusts have little or no confidence in the government's NHS star ratings system, according to a new survey.

Of the primary care trusts polled, 23 per cent argued there were "significant" or "many" inaccuracies in their own assessment.

A further 60 per cent reported a small number of errors, following the first awarding of ratings by the Commission for Health Improvement earlier this year.

"Primary Care Trusts, the public and NHS staff are entitled to expect star ratings to be right," said Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, which conducted the survey.

"Anything else defeats the purpose of having ratings at all and risks losing the trust of health professionals and the public."

The survey also found unease about the performance of Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs). Of those questioned 62 per cent of primary care trusts felt the performance of their SHA was either poor or average.