A London doctor has told how he was inspired to set up the UK’s first private healthcare comparison site after struggling to find suitable care when his own mother fell ill
Dr Mark Ratnarajah, 41, a former paediatrician who spent seven years in the NHS before moving to private practice, founded FindMeHealth.com after his mother needed open-heart surgery.
He said: “One of the most sobering things to go through in life is taking care of an ill family member.
“I just wanted to find the best treatment for my mum and despite 18 years’ experience in medicine, and knowing many people in the profession, it was a difficult experience.
"I realised it must be twice as difficult for people without a medical background.”
The website will allow people to directly compare private consultants on a like-for-like basis in a similar way to comparison websites in other sectors.
The free service has a database of 4,000 consultants, which covers about 80 per cent of those practising privately in the UK. It will use a five-star rating system and allow patients to see records, experience, qualifications and costs of surgeons.
The ratings are based on performance data which indicates how often consultants have performed treatments or surgeries in the past three years as well as patient reviews — from the initial consultation to the follow-up care.
Dr Ratnarajah said: “We want to convert patients into informed health consumers.”
