Last month, Dr Elana Roseth fronted a parliamentary inquiry to recount her experience dealing with discharge summaries (or lack of them) from her local hospital.

For six months, the $600 million newly opened Sydney Northern Beach was a black hole of communication, telling her nothing about what was happening to her patients behind its walls.

Then suddenly 650 summaries turned up in the mail — more than one-third for doctors who didn’t actually work at her practice.

Her plight was much discussed on the Australian Doctor website, but among the many comments by GP detailing their own alarming stories was this: