A DOCTOR from Bolton has been elected to help represent all UK physicians.

Dr John Dean, who lives in Heaton, has joined the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Council, based in London, for three years.

The deputy medical director and consultant physician at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has been elected to the RCP Council with a promise to champion the Future Hospital Commission, a major project to improve the standards of care delivered in hospitals.

Dr Dean said: “It is a privilege for me to be elected to this position by my colleague physicians across the UK.

“I see it as significant responsibility being a council member and I will be supporting the college in its work with current and future physicians, to secure the NHS we all want.”

Educated in England, Wales and the US, Dr Dean is a consultant physician in acute medicine and community diabetes and has also held the position of deputy chairman of the Advancing Quality Alliance, the North West NHS quality improvement organisation, since 2011.

After a career with NHS Bolton, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, he joined East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust in 2011 and is currently leading the first phase of the RCP’s Future Hospital programme at the trust.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Medical Director, Dr Damian Riley, said: “On behalf of everyone at the trust, we offer our wholehearted congratulations to John who he has been chosen by his peers to serve on one of the UK’s most influential medical bodies.”

In addition to publishing more than 30 publications, editorials and reports, Dr Dean has previously been closely involved in the Department of Health and Diabetes UK, the National Clinical Director for Diabetes and helped established the Diabetes and Obesity Research Network.