It’s a hospital in the heart of London. It’s located across the Thames from parliament. Thousands of people stream past it on the train every week as they go in and out of Waterloo station.

That’s all I knew about Guy’s and St Thomas’ until design company Pad Creative gave me the chance to write copy for the Private Healthcare website and several brochures in 2017.

A man, his wife and two children are pictured enjoying private healthcare at Guy's and St Thomas'
The new Guy’s and St Thomas’ Private Healthcare website

With over 300 pages of content, it has taken a year to finish the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Private Healthcare website, but on 28 November 2018 it went live.

Pad Creative’s clean, navigable design makes it easy for patients in the UK and around the world to find the information they need about the specialist and complex care services provided by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Private Healthcare.

Outstanding healthcare

Before I started writing and editing the copy, I had no idea how special Guy’s and St Thomas’ is; how outstanding is its care or how renowned its consultants and staff are around the world.

And, as part of the UK’s largest and safest NHS trusts, its medical breakthroughs have been life-changing – ranging from the first blood transfusion in 1818 to the first mitral heart valve replacement on a beating heart in 2014.

Writing as a team

With such a pedigree, doing justice to Guy’s and St Thomas’ was uppermost in my mind as the job unfolded. Pad Creative passed the editorial reins to me and I called on my sub-contractor Hilary Robertson to help me turn around copy, especially at the start when deadlines were tight.

Having worked together as the only freelancers at a London agency for many years, Hilary and I have creative harmony nailed! Before we began, we discussed how we would write the content in a similar style, so users couldn’t see the ‘join’. Then we sub-edited each other’s copy to make sure we didn’t stray, while double checking every comma, capital letter and full-stop and surgically removing any errors.

Keeping the website fresh

We’re still working on copy for Guy’s and St Thomas’ Private Healthcare, as a website always needs to be kept up to date. But we’re delighted the client is happy with the bulk of our work.

Sharmeela Sleath, Marketing Manager – Private Patients, said: “As part of our new website project we needed to ensure that our copy was of a high standard, reflected our key messages and the right tone for our patients. Alison listened to our brief and delivered professional copy not just for our website but also other marketing materials that were urgently required. She is a pleasure to work with, always accommodating, providing high quality engaging copy for very diverse audiences.”

For more information about Guy’s and St Thomas’ Private Healthcare visit the new website.