A recent front-page report (Hendon & Finchley Times, October 19) of a widow whose late husband, 13 years after his death, was sent a letter by the local health authority calls to mind two similar known NHS instances, despite the latest advances in information technology, of a breakdown in communicat

A recent front-page report (Hendon & Finchley Times, October 19) of a widow whose late husband, 13 years after his death, was sent a letter by the local health authority calls to mind two similar known NHS instances, despite the latest advances in information technology, of a breakdown in communication:

Long-outdated information about the patient's GP held on the computer of a local hospital's accident and emergency department;

Deceased and otherwise departed patients on GPs' lists for whom, although no longer under their medical care, those GPs continue to be paid a capitation fee.

Can really nothing be done, in the interest of taxpayers as well as those more directly concerned, to avoid such seemingly elementary, possibly dangerous and cumulatively costly IT errors being perpetrated and, worse, perpetuated unchecked?

Walter Grey

Arden Road, Finchley