Website writing: Positive diagnosis for healthcare site
Before I started a website writing project, this is all I knew about Guy’s and St Thomas’. 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.
I know a lot more about it since design company Pad Creative hired me for a website writing job in 2017-2018. Work on the private healthcare site dovetailed with several brochures. However, the relationship with the designers and the client have flourished ever since.
With over 300 pages of content, it has taken a year to finish website writing for Guy’s and St Thomas’ Private Healthcare. But on 28 November 2018 it went live. [See update below].
Pad Creative’s clean, navigable design makes it easy for patients in the UK and worldwide to find the information they need about the specialist and complex care services provided by Guy’s and St Thomas’.
Outstanding healthcare
Before I started writing and editing the web 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 globally.
And, as part of the UK’s largest and safest NHS trusts, its medical breakthroughs have been life-changing. They range from the first blood transfusion in 1818 to the first mitral heart valve replacement on a beating heart in 2014.
Website writing as a team
With such a pedigree, doing justice to Guy’s and St Thomas’ was uppermost in my mind as the website writing job unfolded. Pad Creative passed the editorial reins to me. Then I called on my sub-contractor Hilary to help me turn around copy, especially at the start when deadlines were tight.
Hilary and I had worked together as the only freelancers at a London agency for many years. So, we have creative harmony nailed! Before we began, we discussed how we would write the content in a similar style. Therefore, users couldn’t see the ‘join’. Then we sub-edited each other’s copy to make sure we didn’t stray. We also double checked every comma, capital letter and full-stop and surgically removed any errors.
Keeping website writing fresh
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.”
Bringing you up to date
Update: We’re still writing for Guy’s and St Thomas’ Specialist Care. A recent website refresh looks fabulous and the text in websites must always be kept up to date, so many pages will be new. We’re delighted the client was so happy with the bulk of our work back in 2018 that more came out of it. The brochure below, written in 2023, is just one example.
Read my blog on how a healthcare copywriter can make a client stand out.
