Up to date information about the practice will be readily available to all patients with internet access.
GP's are becoming 'net literate' and are finding the internet a useful way of sharing information and ideas.
Your practice can share its clinical and practice management ideas with other practices.
The HTML programming language is a universal way of exchanging information between different computer systems.
A website may suggest to internet-literate patients that you are an "up-to-date practice".
It's actually quite good fun!
It's cheap!
The future looks like being internet-related. The concept of electronic requests for repeat prescriptions seems quite
promising. Be there first!
However, there are some things which you must consider:
The pages will only be as good as the information on them. The data must be accurate and regularly updated. A member of the practice team with an interest in the web site should be responsible for this.
Many patients don't have internet access at the moment.
It costs money - though not a lot considering the value and potential of the medium.
It takes time - but this is user-defined!
It is not confidential unless you use some form of encryption.