'Call me, call me any time, call me...' Well, if NHS Direct has to have a theme tune, Blondie's obviously your band. And that is probably a better, or at least more aspirational, choice of tune than Hanging on the Telephone.

Anyway, now you too can prepare for the day that the 888 service reaches your area.

Nicholas Robinson, who chairs the West London Harmoni GP co-operative, has set up his own NHS Direct web site to share the experience he and his colleagues have had in bidding to join the scheme, and to offer more than a few pointers to others wanting to make a successful application.

Dr Robinson helpfully offers links not just to the usual Department of Health stuff, but to tender documents, some options appraisal advice on nurse triage computer software, and the appraisal paper for Harmoni's own 24-hour advice line. All of which comes in an idiot-proof, easy-to- download RTF format.

Harmoni, as you might expect, has its own web site. So if you want to find out more about what claims to be the largest urban GP co-op in the country, with its 400 family doctors spread across three health authorities and operating out of primary care centres in four major hospitals, you can.

Burrowing further down, one of Harmoni's constituent groups, the Harrow-based Ridgeway Surgery, is also online, offering out-of-hours help and advice along with extracts from the practice newsletter.

Meanwhile, the new NHS Primary Care Group Alliance has started to overhaul the site it inherited from the old National Association of Commissioning GPs.

It has kept the old URL, and since these are early days some of the content remains the same.

But the new design is glossier and more professional.

These and other sites of interest can be reached via HSJ 's website at www.hsj.co.uk