A national measure of how independent health care providers of NHS treatments are performing has identified Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre as best in the country for primary hip replacement in the 12 months to March 2018.

Not only was Shepton Mallet first in the country for primary hip replacements, but the hospital was also in the top five per cent of providers in the country for primary knee replacements.

The measure is for the average adjusted health gain on Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) reported by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. PROMs measures health improvement in patients across a number of surgical disciplines, including knee and hip replacements, based on patients' responses to questionnaires before and after surgery.

The results of the report, which includes independent sector and NHS providers, have been published in the quarterly NHS Partners Network/NHS Confederation report: "Independent sector providers caring for NHS patients: Comparative performance indicators".

Last year Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre carried out 447 knee replacements and 612 hip replacements.

In the national Friends and Family Test, Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre recently achieved the overall score of 100 per cent of patients stating that they would recommend the hospital to their nearest and dearest, for each month over the past five months. The hospital scored 99 per cent for inpatients, 100 per cent for day cases and 100 per cent for outpatients.

The results follow the performance by Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre in the Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) inspection. Here, the hospital was joint top in the country for quality of care.

It scored 100 per cent, making it one of only three hospitals run by an independent care provider in the country to achieve top marks. In all, 1,199 NHS trusts and other care providers responded to the PLACE audit, with just 32 achieving 100 per cent.

Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre is the only care provider in the South West of England with a mark of 100 per cent for in its PLACE inspection.

Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre achieved 100 per cent for cleanliness, privacy, dignity and wellbeing, the standard of the facility, food, dementia provision and disability provision.

The hospital was also the first hospital of its kind to be rated 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission across all five of its criteria.

Chester Barnes, hospital director at Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre, said: "My congratulations go to my colleagues for achieving such splendid PROMs results, and my thanks to our patients for giving such positive feedback.

"Excellent patient experience sits at the heart of everything we do and this result reflects the importance we place on providing the very highest levels of care for our patients."