How Treatment Rooms London built a surgeon-led hair clinic
Dr Dilan Fernando is Co-Founder and Surgeon at Treatment Rooms London, a London hair transplant clinic. The conversation traces the clinic’s beginnings, its early referrals and its focus on helping patients understand their options, alongside lessons on team retention and protecting a clinical reputation.
A lasting clinical practice depends on consistently good work, patient safety and a reputation built over time. Clear explanations and attention to the team also matter.
What’s the short story of how your business started, and what makes it genuinely different from the other options your customers have?
Before entering the world of hair restoration surgery, I was working as a neurosurgical doctor. It was an incredibly demanding and highly specialised field that really shaped my meticulous approach to patient care.
Now I run the the Treatment Rooms London clinic with childhood friend and medical school peer, Dr. Roshan Vara. Funny enough, the idea for the business was actually born while on a beach in Sri Lanka! A mutal friend of Dr Vara and I suffered a bad hair transplant experience. We honestly realised that we ourselves could do far better with the medical knowledge we had. It all grew from there.
How did you win your first customers, and where does most of your new business come from today?
Initially, we had a lot of local patients utilising a service on their doorstep. Of course, some of our earlier patients were also friends of friends or referrals from people who already knew me as a trusted doctor before the Treatment Rooms. Now we’re an established hair transplant surgery clinic, patients come to see us from all over the world.
What’s one decision that changed the direction of your business, and one mistake that taught you the most?
Myself and Dr Vara going full time into the business was a big leap for us because it meant taking away the safety net of income from locum doctor work. Luckily, it more than paid off!
One mistake that came up recently was taking a finger off the pulse when it came to the team. Facing almost losing some very crucial team members was a really important lesson for me in retention.
What has changed in your industry or in what your customers expect over the last couple of years, and how have you adapted?
I would say that previously, patients really searched for safe and effective hair transplants, and a clinic that generally was reputable for doing so. (It’s so important that patients stay well clear of the black market!) Now, I think patients definitely look for a surgeon who gives clear, understandable, and in-depth explanations about the particulars of surgery. We’ve been lucky to have been able to use this to our advantage as a surgeon-led clinic, raising the profile and visibility of our surgeons and helping educate patients away from the black market.
If you were advising someone starting out in your industry today, what would you tell them to do first, and what would you tell them to ignore?
Build a reputation slowly, based on good-quality surgical work. This is the only foundation for a clinical practice which can stand the test of time. And make sure to avoid taking risks with surgery and patients, which can damage that reputation.
Thank you to Dr Dilan Fernando and the team at Treatment Rooms London for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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