After months of being seen by visitors on the

Internet, the Taw Hill doctor's surgery finally opened on 20 September in temporary premises off Queen Elizabeth Drive, two years in advance of building a health centre at the proposed village centre.

Nearly one hundred patients have joined the practice led by Doctors Peter Crouch and June Morris, half of whom first registered their interest via e-mail to www.tawhillsurgery.com which has also been publicised through www.swindonlink.com

The large facility is one of only three in the country funded by a special government grant to set up doctors surgeries in areas of population growth. There are two consulting rooms, a treatment room and a room for attached staff, such as health visitors and midwives.

Dr Morris moved to Swindon in 1997 after 10 years in her practice in Portsmouth to join her husband Roy Lawrence who is a general and vascular surgeon at PMH. They have a six year old son.

Dr Crouch is one of the Swindon police surgeons and was until recently head of information technology at a teaching hospital in Birmingham where he managed a national pilot scheme coordinating the use of new technology in the delivery of health care by GPs and hospital doctors.

The practice is a test bed for new technologies. A computerised booking system has been installed and patients will be able to access an 'In Touch with Health' console in the waiting room which holds 10,000 health related topics on-line.

Dr Crouch assured swindonlink.com that people will always come first at Taw Hill. "The technology is an aid to efficiency so that we can spend more time with our patients who are our primary concern."

To register with the Taw Hill practice, call in at Queen Elizabeth Drive, telephone 07050 123623 or visit www.tawhillsurgery.com