How we write, review and price our health pages

Patients in Nigeria and Nigerians abroad arranging care at home. We write in plain Nigerian English, use the words patients use, and explain medical terms the first time they appear. Each page says who a treatment is for, who it is not for, what recovery looks like and what can go wrong, because a page that lists only the benefits is an advert, not advice.

Clinical content is drafted against current published guidance: national guidelines such as those from NICE and the World Health Organization, public health service patient information such as the NHS, and peer-reviewed research. Where a page relies on a specific source, that source is listed and linked at the foot of the page under "Sources and further reading", with the date the links were last checked.

We then adapt it to how care actually works here: what is available in Nigerian hospitals, what it costs, what an HMO usually covers, and what a patient should ask before agreeing to anything.

No clinical page goes live without a named medical reviewer and a review date. Both are required fields in the system that builds the pages, so a page without them cannot be published by accident. The reviewer's name, linked to their profile, and the date of the last review appear near the top of every guide, specialty page and treatment page.

The reviewer checks that the page is clinically accurate, that it does not promise an outcome, that the risks are stated honestly, and that the advice on when to see a doctor and when to seek urgent care is right.

Today one doctor reviews every clinical page: Dr Debo Odulana. As specialist consultants join the network, each specialty's pages move to a reviewer in that specialty, and the page shows the change.

Each page shows the date it was last reviewed. We re-review a page within twelve months of that date, and sooner when a guideline it relies on changes, when the price changes, or when a patient or clinician tells us something is wrong. A changed page carries a new review date; we do not change the date without reviewing the page.

Every price on a treatment page is a Naira cash price and carries a code that traces it to where it came from. There are four sources:

• Fixed case rate. One all-in price for the whole episode, checked against the case-rate record in our billing system.
• Mezo tariff. A single item priced from the Mezo tariff card, checked against the card itself.
• Market-set. Set from prices observed in the Nigerian market where our own tariff was silent or out of line. Each one carries a written note of where the number came from.
• Practice price. Set by a named practice on the network and published on its own booking page. We mirror it; we do not change it.

Every price change is run through an automated check before it goes out. It re-reads every price on every treatment page against its source and fails if a single one has drifted. The same check refuses prices that make no sense together: nothing published at zero, a revision or two-sided operation never cheaper than the single primary one, and a day case never priced above a major inpatient operation.

Where no defensible fixed price exists, for example when the operation depends on what the surgeon finds at examination, the page says so and shows the consultation fee and a written quote instead of a number we could not stand behind. What a fixed price includes, and what changes it.

We name a clinician only once they are on the Mezo register, and the title in front of their name comes from their regulator: Dr for doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, no title for physiotherapists and nurses. A practitioner's profile carries only what they have stated publicly and we have checked. A surgeon who is not yet registered to operate in Nigeria is shown as assessing and planning your care, and the operating surgeon is named in your written quote.

A facility is named only after its agreement with Mezo is signed and its owner has agreed to be named.

• A doctor, facility, qualification or registration we have not verified.
• Star ratings, reviews or testimonials we cannot trace to a real patient.
• A promised outcome, a success rate we cannot source, or a claim to be the best.
• Structured data for search engines describing anything that is not visibly on the page.

Mezo is paid when you book care through it. We say so plainly because it is a reason to read any health company's pages with care, including ours. It is also why our pages list who a treatment is not right for, the risks, and what is not included in the price. A page is never changed to make a treatment look safer, quicker or cheaper than the reviewer and the price check allow.

If you think something on a page is wrong, out of date or unclear, email notifications@mezohealth.com with the page address and what you think should change. Clinicians and patients are equally welcome to write.

A clinical point goes to the medical reviewer. A price goes to whoever owns the tariff and is re-checked against its source. If we were wrong we correct the page, give it a new review date, and reply to tell you what changed. If we were not, we reply to explain why.

These pages are general information and do not replace an examination. If you are unwell now, go to the nearest emergency department.