Northland Knee & Hip: a surgeon's site for patients and GPs

Northland Knee & Hip is the private practice of Dr Wayne Hoskins, an orthopaedic surgeon consulting in Whangārei with a focus on knee and hip replacement, revision surgery and orthopaedic trauma. A surgical practice website has two audiences at once.

Patients arrive worried, often older and often reading on a phone, and want to understand their condition, the operation and what ACC or insurance will cover. GPs and physiotherapists need to know what to refer and how, in seconds.

On top of that, every word is governed by the Medical Council of New Zealand's advertising standards, which rule out testimonials, ratings, superlatives and outcome claims. Dr Hoskins is also an active researcher, and his publications and awards needed a proper home rather than a line in a bio.

We designed and built the site from scratch on Astro, organised around the three areas the practice treats: knee, hip and trauma, each with its own condition and procedure pages. Patients get plain-language guides to the first appointment, preparing for surgery, recovery, and ACC, insurance and fees.

Referrers get a dedicated section with a referral form that goes straight to the practice's referrals inbox. A research section presents his peer-reviewed publications, textbook chapters and awards.

The visual identity takes its navy directly from his printed stationery and pairs a restrained serif with a clean sans for an academic, clinical tone. Compliance is built into the build itself: there is no testimonial or rating component to reach for, and an automated pre-launch check scans every page for superlatives, outcome claims and review markup and blocks the release if it finds any.

The site meets the WCAG AA accessibility standard for contrast, uses large tap targets for older readers, and sets no tracking cookies by default.