Sydney, Aug 14 (IANS/EFE): An Australian hospital has apologised after declaring more than 200 patients dead due to a computer error, media reported Thursday.

The Austin Hospital in Melbourne July 30 sent automatic notifications to general practitioners informing them of the deaths of their patients, who had been discharged the previous day.

At least one of the doctors called the families to offer condolences before the hospital corrected the error, according to the Herald Sun newspaper.

The hospital's management said the mistake, which was detected after a few hours, happened when the form notifying GPs of a patient's death was being updated and was accidentally saved as a standard form.

GP's are regularly informed when their patients are discharged from hospital.

"We apologised unreservedly to affected clinics who, for the most part, were very understanding about the error," Taryn Sheehy, spokesperson of the hospital, said in a statement.