A quarter of all UK doctors are logging on to an Oxfordshire-based website, making it Europe's largest online medical site.

Doctors.net.uk has proved so popular that 30,000 registered medics are using the site, with another 700 joining every week.

The Didcot-based site's founder and chief executive, Dr Neil Bacon, launched the pages in June 1998 solely for the medical profession and students.

The senior registrar said: "I teach a lot of junior doctors and it was quite clear that they rely on the Internet for research."

Kidney disease specialist Dr Bacon, who runs a clinic at Oxford's Churchill Hospital renal unit, set up the site with a library full of up to date research, job news and "off duty" e-commerce. It is run by an in-house team of eight doctors, based at Milton Science Park, and has more than 40 more contributors across Britain.

Dr Bacon is now toying with the idea of floating his company on the stock market.

He said: "It is a profit-making company, because in this hi-tech, fast-moving world of the Web, the only way to be successful is by being a hard-nosed businessman."

Story date: Tuesday 21 March

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