01
Why this site exists
Surgery is one of the few decisions where the person advising you is often paid for the answer being
yes, and where the patient has the least ability to judge. Fear does the rest of the work: told that
something could become serious, most people agree quickly and ask nothing.
The result is that patients go into operations without knowing three things they are entitled to know.
Whether the operation is genuinely necessary. Whether it has to happen now, or whether there is time to
think and get another opinion. And what the alternatives are, including doing nothing and watching.
Every page in the library is built to answer those three questions in that order.
02
How it is paid for, and what that rules out
There is no advertising, no sponsored content, no affiliate arrangement, no booking commission, and no
paid placement of any kind. No hospital can buy a mention, buy a better mention, or buy the removal of
anything. We do not arrange treatment, take referral fees, or negotiate between patients and hospitals,
because the moment money moves with a patient, the writing stops being trustworthy.
The one paid programme on the site is hospital certification, and it is deliberately built so the
result cannot be bought: the score comes from a random sample of patients we draw ourselves, the fee
buys the survey rather than the outcome, and below 90% nothing is published at all.
How certification works.
03
Why no hospital or doctor is ever named
Not one page on this site names a facility or a clinician, in either direction. No praise and no
blame. This is not timidity; it is what keeps the site useful.
A site that names good doctors becomes a marketing channel, and marketing channels get gamed by
whoever spends the most, which is exactly the problem this site was built against. A site that names
bad ones becomes a defamation case and stops publishing. Naming also identifies the patient: a
procedure, a date and a place together can single out one person. So patient experiences are published
as patterns, and the useful part is preserved without the identifying part.
04
Who writes it, and who checks it
Clinical content is drawn from peer-reviewed journals, randomised trials, systematic reviews, specialty
society guidelines and national health authorities, and every page carries its own reference list with
the publisher, the year and a link. Where evidence is genuinely contested we say so rather than picking
the more convenient side. Read the editorial method.
Doctors can apply to contribute safety tips, and are verified by hand against their own medical
register before anything they write carries a badge. Any register in any country is accepted. They may
not name their practice, their fees or their location, and nothing reading as advertising is published,
verified or not. Apply as a contributor.
05
What we hold about you, and what we refuse to hold
Uploads are disabled on purpose. There is no safe reason for this site to hold your bills, scans,
discharge papers or prescriptions, so it does not accept them. Patient submissions do not ask for a
hospital, a city or a date, and email addresses, phone numbers and links are stripped automatically
before anything is stored rather than before it is displayed.
Nothing a patient writes appears on the site until a moderator has read it, and you can ask us to
delete your submission at any time. Read the security
rules.
06
This is education, not medical advice
Nothing here can examine you, see your reports or know your history. Every page is written to make you
better at the conversation with the doctor who can do those things, not to replace them. The decision
is always between you and your treating clinician.
If a page misstates the evidence, cites something incorrectly, or has fallen behind a revised
guideline, write to us with the source. We correct it and update the page date.
Corrections: hello@safesurgispace.com
