A Melbourne hospital has erroneously sent out death notices for hundreds of its living patients.

More than 200 patients were mistakenly killed off when Austin Health faxed the death notices, generated in error, to each patient’s GP.

It took several hours to correct the error which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to a News Corp report.

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Austin Health has apologised but the incident is a further sign of a hospital system in crisis, the Victorian Opposition says.

“They obviously can’t take that back … it’s symptomatic of a health system that is in crisis, a health system where emergency departments are full,” Labor leader Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

“You talk to any nurses, any doctor, any paramedic, any patient or their loved ones, and they’ll tell you that we shouldn’t settle for the health system the way it is now.”