The Guardian is running a story today about 700,000 missing NHS letters. We issued the following statement in response to the story:

“Today’s news about the large amount of undelivered medical correspondence illustrates why the NHS can no longer rely on an outdated system of paper and faxes to correspond about patients.

“If GPs and hospitals could communicate electronically, through a joined up and secure digital system, we would see a transformation in healthcare. It would allow the NHS to deliver a more effective service, protect patient confidentiality and, most importantly, significantly improve patient care.”