A large drop in the number of Dunedin Hospital discharge letters sent to GPs in a prompt time period has potential for ''major mishaps'' in patient care, Dr Jill McIlraith says.
The Southern District Health Board says it has approved a new system for getting letters to GPs, but it is held up by IT issues.
Dr McIlraith said she and her colleagues were spending ''more and more time'' tracking down discharge letters that contained crucial information about patients.
''And when, if at all, we do get them, it is often weeks later, long after we have seen the patient and the time within which we have been asked to follow up on something has passed.
''It has the potential for major mishaps to occur, and in this digital era, I can't see why Dunedin Hospital can't do what Mercy Hospital does - use secure email to send us the discharge every time, on time,'' Dr McIlraith said.
Dr McIlraith's Aurora Medical Centre colleague Dr Sandy Ross wrote to chief executive Carole Heatly about the problem in August, correspondence released under the Official Information Act shows.
In her reply, Ms Heatly promised to act urgently to fix the problem, and told Dr Ross it had been referred to management's ''Make it Happen'' subcommittee.
Dr McIlraith told the Otago Daily Times the practice told senior hospital doctors their concerns, but ''the problem only seems to be getting worse''.
''Occasionally we get one faxed the same day as the discharge but that is rare.''
Patients were usually given a copy of the letter, but often did not think to bring it with them to the GP.
Dr McIlraith said the board had no GP liaison person, nor a chief medical officer at present, which made it difficult for GPs to get their problems heard.
Health board primary care adviser Assoc Prof Dr Jim Reid said in a statement the board acted on the concern by approving the electronic release of the discharge letters on to health IT system iSoft.
This was approved last month, but ''technical difficulties'' had delayed its implementation.
This was being worked on.
