How a £200 Upwork Project Became a Seven-Year Partnership (and Started Mitchell Digital)

Midland Health is a private GP practice in Birmingham that started with Dr. Rupert Palmer working from a single medical room in 2018. Today, they’re an established practice with 30-40 staff offering everything from GP consultations to specialist services across multiple locations.

I found the project on Upwork. Dr. Palmer needed a website. I was employed elsewhere, working freelance on the side, and took the job. The first website was about 200 pages. I probably got paid a couple of quid an hour. But it worked. The relationship grew. She kept coming back.

This is the project that made Mitchell Digital possible.

2018: Building from scratch
Dr. Palmer was starting a private practice from nothing. No existing digital presence, no systems, no infrastructure. Just ambition and a need to be found online. The brief was simple: build a website that makes us look professional and helps patients find our services.

200 pages later, we had something that worked.

2020: COVID changes everything
When COVID hit, Midland Health made a bold decision: go all-in on testing. Private practices across the country were struggling. Midland Health saw an opportunity to help – and survive.

But testing at scale needs systems. Fast. They needed:

• Online booking for COVID tests
• API integrations with laboratory systems
• Automated certificate generation
• Admin systems to manage thousands of tests
• Subscription booking processes

I was still employed elsewhere, building this in evenings and on weekends. The pressure was immense. But it had to work.

The COVID infrastructure
I built everything they needed to run a testing operation at scale:

• Laboratory API integrations

  Connected their booking system directly to lab processing, so results flowed automatically from test to certificate without manual intervention.

• Automated test certificates

  Patients booked online, got tested, and received their certificates automatically. No phone calls, no manual admin, no bottlenecks.

• Clinic system integrations

  Built booking and subscription systems that tied into their clinic management software, handling capacity, scheduling, and patient records.

• Business continuity

  As the practice grew, we implemented proper backup systems and contingency plans. One of my busiest sites now, so downtime isn’t an option.

When things calmed down post-COVID, we worked with Avid Panda (SEO specialists) and Bradley Layton Design to rebuild the site properly. Better mobile experience, faster load times, clearer conversion paths. The practice had evolved – we needed the site to reflect that.

The practice transformation:

• Started with one doctor in 2018 – now 30-40 staff across multiple Birmingham locations
• Survived and thrived through COVID while many private practices struggled
• Processed thousands of COVID tests using the systems we built
• Still the only digital partner they’ve worked with in seven years

The Mitchell Digital origin:
Juggling Midland Health’s COVID build while employed elsewhere made the decision clear: I could do this on my own. We’d moved away from the area, the scale of work made it necessary, and it just became possible.

I went solo. Formed Mitchell Digital. Midland Health became the first proper client.

The relationship today:
Seven years later, we still work together. Website maintenance, ongoing development and guidance. We’ve never met in person – the entire relationship has been built remotely.

Doesn’t matter. Trust isn’t built in boardrooms.