LETTERS to some patients treated at Southampton hospitals are being typed up on the other side of the world - and bosses say that the new service is saving patients a six-week wait.

Instead of letters being typed up in Southampton they are being sent to South Africa, returned and sent out to patients within two days.

The pilot scheme is being run by Southampton University Hospitals Trust, which runs the city's three hospitals.

Bosses say that the new scheme is running more efficiently and helping to save money, and was introduced because the trust couldn't find suitable staff for the roles.

However, unions are outraged that work is being outsourced from the local health economy.

Consultants involved in the test studies have been dictating patients' letters into digital recording devices, which are then connected to a computer.

Files are sent across the Internet to South Africa, where medical secretaries type the letters before e-mailing them back to Southampton.

Backlog

A spokesman for the trust said: "The trust has run the trials because it was finding it difficult to attract suitably qualified clinical typists to deal with the backlog of letters.

"Now that the pilot studies have proved successful in terms of both turnaround time and quality, the trust is considering how these services could be extended to other departments."

The service itself is being provided by a company which gives secretarial support to hospitals and other UK organisations.

Bosses say that the service will eventually save them cash but are unsure as to the exact cost benefits of using the service as yet.

Appointments

They also say that the service has cut down on missed appointments because results have not arrived, and this in turn is helping to cut down on waiting times.

However Mandy Weldon, the health branch secretary of union Unison, said that the new system was at the cost of the local health economy.

"These are posts that we could have had people from our area working in as a part of our NHS," she said.

The trust recently announced that more than 50 posts were being considered for redeployment or possible redundancy, including administration and clerical positions.