Feature for GP magazine

The following copy was written for Link News, a magazine for GPs in the Croydon area.

One of the fastest-growing areas of the modern health service is health information, and although many of the current initiatives are aimed at the patient, it may be useful to know that doctors are also being catered for in the rush for medical facts and figures.
Healthpoint is the regional Health Information Service [HIS] for the South Thames [West] region. Originally a Patient's Charter initiative, the HIS is a freephone service, and although 75% of the calls we receive are from the public, the service is also geared toward the health professional.
The service can help the GP in a number of ways. From the provision of self-help groups for the newly diagnosed patient to waiting times for most operations, from current research in medicine to complementary alternatives, the service is staffed by trained information professionals.
Healthpoint's affiliation to the Croydon Healthcare Library Service enables us to trace and order current and past research from a variety of medical journals and publications. The world-wide web is becoming increasingly useful for research into health topics, and we are 'on-line'.
Healthpoint is aware of the possible pitfalls of inappropriate health information, and we work to strict protocols. Information on specific conditions is only given to the public provided that a diagnosis has been made. Most importantly, it is always stressed that the staff have no formal medical training and that calling the service is not a substitute for talking to the doctor. If the caller is presenting symptoms, or is concerned about their health, we would always refer them to their GP in the first instance.
The HIS is an ideal referral point for health scares. GPs local to Croydon will remember the public concern over the recent cases of meningitis. In the case of a local health issue, Healthpoint takes its briefing both from the Department of Health and through liaison with local Public Health Medicine consultants, and can effectively relieve the strain on practice switchboards by being a one-stop point of referral for worried members of the public.
The service is personally staffed from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, and an answerphone service operates outside office hours. Calls are always returned the next working day.
The telephone number is 0800 XXXXXX, and we look forward to hearing from you.