| We have learned that at least two organisations have recently approached our client practices offering alternatives to the Sites4Doctors website package. They appear to be choosing practices with existing sites rather than attempting to sell the idea of a website to those that do not already have one. Of course, you are free to change your website at any time, but we would advise you to consider the following points before making a decision. 1 Do you really want to ask your patients to learn to use a completely new site when by now they should be thoroughly at home with your existing one? 2 Do you want a new site because there are issues of user-friendliness with your current one? If so, we assure you that we are always open to requests and suggestions for changes in the Sites4Doctors package. Indeed, most of the package’s features have been developed in response either to guidance from LMCs or to feedback from client practices. Please raise any such issues with us before committing your practice to a change of site. 3 Have you been offered a site with important features that Sites4Doctors does not offer? If so, have you asked us if these can be added to your existing package? They almost certainly can - probably within a day or two. 4 Do you want a new site because what you are offered looks more attractive or more modern? Again, we are happy to make any cosmetic changes you require - simply give us the address of any site whose look you prefer and we will happily offer styling changes to your site. 5 Is the site you are being offered hosted on a Microsoft Windows system? If so, our 7 years experience of managing health-related websites tells us that it is likely to be far less stable and reliable than your Sites4Doctors package. This is hosted on Linux, a version of the Unix operating system which drives the whole Internet and most mainframe computer systems - including, when we last looked, the one that ensures that GPs get paid!. 6 Will your new site give you the same control over content and the organisation of information which you get from Sites4Doctors? Or will you be paying extra every time you want a change? 7 Does the alternative provider offer support outside office hours? Our dedicated mobile is switched on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On one occasion we dealt with a GP’s query at one o’clock in the morning! 8 How long has the alternative provider been offering GP websites? Sites4Doctors is now in its fifth year. 9 Does the alternative provider’s own website offer links to all its client sites so that you can try them for yourself, or just to carefully selected screenshots? 10 Is the alternative package endorsed by Local Medical Committees? Trent Buying Group has been recommending only Sites4Doctors, which it describes as ’a very stable and reasonably priced product’, since July 2004. 11 Did you know that Notts LMC has moved its own site (www.nottinghamshirelmc.co.uk) to Sites4Doctors from an internal NHS provider (Windows-based), has had a new look-and-feel created for this, and has now set up a new Sites4Doctors site (www.lmcsbuyinggroup.co.uk) for The LMCs Buying Group Federation? | 
