A Brighton firm is about to rebuild the UK's biggest Government website.

Worth Media will recreate the Department of Health site over the next 18 months.

The job will involve designing the site from scratch and placing thousands of documents on to the web.

Editorial director Jonathan Vernon said: "We will make it more accessible to the public. At the moment the site is more for specialists."

NHS bosses have asked Worth Media to help users create communities.

The new site will learn which areas interest different users and automatically direct them to their favourite sections.

Mr Vernon said: "Instead of entering a library, it will be more like going into a den."

Forums will allow users in each section to communicate. The first priority will be to give the site a new look.

At the moment, it is almost entirely without graphics.

Members of the Worth Media team will work with Health Department editors in Leeds and London to complete the project.

They will also be working on the its internal intranet service on which many of the ideas for the new site will be tested.

The redesign confirms the Department of Health's commitment to digital media.

In December it launched NHS Direct, a website and helpline designed to offer medical advice online.

Worth Media is also extending an NHS careers site first designed by the firm last year.

The firm has built a strong reputation after winning a BAFTA nomination for its D-Code health CD-Rom.

More recently, the business created the 'A Healthy Nation' website to support a Government public welfare campaign.

It is now working with Surgery Online in Amiens, France, to create a site for use by French accident and emergency staff.

Away from the NHS, Worth Media created a site for Tellytubby creators Rag Doll.

Recent additions to this site include details of Rosie and Jim theatre shows in Brighton and Worthing.

www.doh.gov.uk
www.nhscareers.nhs.uk
www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
www.ragdoll.co.uk