’Someone took a call from Surgery link telling us they were our "new" website designers. Something I should know or a scam?’

I can assure you that this company has no right whatever to describe itself in these terms and that, as far as Sites4Professionals is concerned, this is indeed a ’scam’.

The LMCs Buying Group is, of course, free to endorse any provider it likes, but it has no authority to assign one to your practice. I am sure Notts LMC would be very concerned to hear that Surgery Link is approaching Sites4Doctors practices in this way.

On investigation, I find that Surgery Link is a brand operated by a company called CNS Media, whom Notts LMC told me in February that they were planning to endorse instead of Sites4Doctors, after Netherfield Medical Centre had switched to them. I assume that this is now the case.

I fed back a number of constructive criticisms of the Netherfield site to the LMC, but on visiting the site at http://www.netherfieldmc.co.uk/ I can see no significant changes.

You may care to have a look at this site, looking particularly for all the basic practice data which patients would expect to find and which Sites4Doctors helps you to publish automatically.

The Surgery Link site at http://www.surgerylink.co.uk/ mentions only Netherfield as a client and does not give links to this or any other client site. Nor does it give an address for the company, but just an 08445 telephone number.

They charge £199 for site setup, £1 less than our charge of £200 (though ours was subject to a 15% discount until the Buying Group endorsement was withdrawn), and £35 per month for ’management’, which adds up to £420 a year - £170 more than Sites4Doctors’ £250.

I would like to assure you that Sites4Doctors is very much alive and values the loyalty of its clients - some of whom it has been serving for over five years - greatly. I would also remind you that we are always happy to make any changes you require to the structure or styling of your site, free of charge.

Finally, I would be grateful if you would let me know if you receive one of these calls.