Hospital nurses turn friendship into a business partnership

The owners of Caremark Barnsley, friends Jomon Mathew and Varghese Choondiyanil, give us an insight into their first two years of business ownership

Jomon Mathew and Varghese Choondiyanil, who have 60 years of nursing experience between the two of them, first got to know each other while working in wards at The Royal Blackburn Hospital where they soon became firm friends. In June 2019, this friendship also became a business partnership when they took over the running of their very own franchised business, Caremark Barnsley.

Two years later and they have already come a long way, including having to steer the company through a wholly unexpected global pandemic. Jomon explained: “We knew when we decided to run our own homecare business that there would be lots of similarities between this and what we used to do as nurses.”

“We have always been passionate about looking after people, so the only difference is this is now done in people’s homes, rather than a hospital,” continued Varghese. “We we had to learn new things which come with running your own business, such as human resources, training, finance, and liaising with different stakeholders, such as the local authority and social workers.

“However, we were adamant from the outset that regardless of anything else, we would not compromise when it came to delivering high-quality care, and we are pleased to have been able to do this. The pandemic obviously posed many unexpected challenges but we maintained service delivery throughout and now we’re focused on making Caremark Barnsley the best homecare provider in the area.”

Care also runs in Jomon and Varghese’s families. Jomon’s wife is a nurse working in an acute pain ward and one of their daughters is currently taking her A-Levels with the hope of being able to study medicine. Varghese’s wife is also a nurse working in a hospital theatre and their son is already studying medicine with a plan to become a GP.

Outside of work, Jomon and Varghese both enjoy spending time with their families and indulging their love of cricket.