TV health guru, Dr Hilary Jones, revisited the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, on Friday.

The GMTV doctor, who has a practice in Basingstoke, opened the hospital's stroke rehabilitation development unit in 1999.

He was back there to help it celebrate becoming the first in Hampshire to achieve Practice Development Unit status.

It has been awarded by Bournemouth University which, as an Institute of Health and Community Studies, has been leading a nationwide accreditation programme.

Dr Jones stopped to chat to patients on the ward and afterwards commended the staff on their hard work.

"What you have achieved in the last four years is amazing and it is all to the team's credit," he said.

"You have been big enough to concentrate on the carers and patients and you have been prepared to take on negative feed back about how things can be improved further.

"Your motivation knows no bounds. We need more centres like this and it means so much to the patients."

As part of its accreditation programme, the unit has reduced the time patients stay in hospital from 38 to 26 days.

A special phone line has also been set up to help stroke patients who have been discharged and staff are documenting their working methods so that others can follow their example.