WYCOMBE Hospital has refuted suggestions that patient notes are being outsourced to India to save money.

Last week we reported that two departments at the hospital in Queen Alexandra Road have been sending letters dictated between GPs and consultants across continents to be typed up, because they claim there is a nationwide shortage of medical secretaries.

A 57-year-old medical secretary, from Little Chalfont , told our sister paper Midweek: "If they say there are no medical secretaries around then that is rubbish. I have told their recruitment agency that I am available to work. It is about finances."

But Jon Fisher, communications manager for the Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "The use of a third party company to transcribe documents is not motivated by a finance issue. It addresses a shortfall of medical secretaries which the NHS as a whole is experiencing. Without the use of a third party company many patients would experience a delay in receiving follow-up GP appointments."

The dermatology and cardiology units have been using a company called Dscribe to type up files electronically recorded by medical staff at the hospital on a digital voice recorder.