Looking for your local M S support group? Want to know how to give up smoking? Need a poster about healthy eating? Primary health care staff need look no further than the first virtual health centre in the world launched on the 24 June by Mr Donald Dewar, Secretary of State for Scotland and Mr Sam Galbraith, Minister for Health, as part of the launch of the NHSNet.

With every GP's surgery in Scotland connected to the NHSnet this is an ideal way for HEBS to make health education material and messages available to staff and patients.

The HEBS site is as close to a real health centre as possible without the potted plants and the chorus of coughs and sneezes. HEBS uses a colour coded floor plan to provide an easy and logical way around the site so even the most technophobe professional can track down the right information through the site's 50,000 pages of information from HEBS and access to millions from elsewhere. Technophiles, of course, will be in virtual heaven.

Dr James Inglis, Director of Health Information at HEBS said, "Lots of vital information from HEBS and hundreds of other sites are to be found in this virtual health centre including leaflets, posters, over 3000 support groups, clinical guidelines, a range of health promotion and disease management clinics, on-line journals and professional organisations. The emphasis is on quick easy access to information which answers the questions of both professionals and patients. There's also some fun stuff in the virtual "staff room" including newspapers and coffee, (honestly!) a video wall, health tips and email postcards you can send to your friends.

"We hope that the wealth of reliable information and advice in the site will make the HEBS Health Centre an everyday feature of general practice for staff and patients throughout the country," said Dr Inglis. "It's available everywhere from Stranraer to Stromness, is open 24 hours a day and no appointment is necessary."