It's Sunday night and you have been feeling terrible all weekend; you want to go and see the doctor on Monday morning, but you don't know if there are any appointments. Help is at hand! You can now book appointments and repeat prescriptions through your TV from the comfort of your favourite armchair. All you need is a Sky digibox that is connected to a telephone line or a computer connected to the internet.

Before you use the service for the first time, visit the Medical Practice (Tel 381214) to receive your password and PIN.

You can also receive help to use the Sky service if you are over 65 or in receipt of Disability Living Allowance. Anyone who needs help will be asked for their views on the system as part of a Cybermoor research project. Please contact researcher Margaret Cooper on 01434 382 808 for more details.

If you have a Sky Digibox, the service can be accessed by following the following instructions.

On your Sky remote:
• Press the Interactive button
• Press 9 for TV Keys (pictured)
• Enter 'LOCAL' (56225)

From the Looking Local main menu:
• Select ‘2 Northern England & IOM'
• Select ‘3 North West'
• Select ‘6 Cumbria'
• Select ‘3 Cybermoor'

You should now be looking at Alston Moor / Cybermoor's Looking Local home screen.

• Select ‘2 Health Services'
• Select ‘1 Book GP appointment'
• Select ‘use GP services'
• To log in, type the Alston Practice ID - 886, your Access ID and Password.
• You can now make an appointment or order a repeat prescription.

When you have finished, leave the Interactive service by pressing the ‘Sky' button or ‘TV Guide'.

To access the service on the internet go to
www.digitv.gov.uk/digitv/cds/Cybermoor/Netgem/home.html and follow the same instructions as above.