Simon Dean, who has been appointed operations manager at Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre, brings with him a wealth of international experience.

Simon joins the hospital from his latest role as soft services manager at King's College Hospital in Dubai.

With a background in the Armed Forces, he has worked in a number of countries around the world delivering catering, retail and leisure facilities.

He was catering services manager in the British Embassy in Kabul, was area support manager for the NAAFI in Germany and was general manager for RAF Station ISS Defence Services.

After leaving the Armed Forces he took a number of appointments in catering, retail and leisure organisations in Saudi Arabia.

His health care experience included the role of operations manager at Ramsay Healthcare.

Andrew Oakerbee, hospital director at Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre, said: "We are delighted to welcome Simon to our team.

"His breadth of experience is impressive and we look forward to working with him to take this CQC-rated Outstanding hospital to the next level."

Shepton Mallet Treatment Centre is the first hospital of its kind to be rated overall Outstanding across the five domains of the quality mark by the CQC.

It opened its doors in 2005 to provide elective (planned) surgery to NHS patients and the majority of the care it provides is NHS.

The hospital regularly scores 99 per cent-plus from its patients in the national Friends and Family Test.

Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre was top in the country for primary hip replacements in the year to March 2019, according to the latest-available national Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). The hospital was also in the top five per cent for total knee placements.