Families of around 200 patients at an Australian hospital got the fright of their lives after receiving a phone call from the hospital, claiming their loved ones were dead. Luckily, they weren't.

Austin Hospital, in Australia's second most populous city of Melbourne, erroneously killed off the patients when it faxed death notices to their family doctors.

As reported by Herald Sun, the hospital corrected the mistake within hours. Unfortunately, at least one doctor contacted a patient's family to express condolences.

After the hospital realized their error, Austin Hospital officials offered a sincere apology. However, The Australian Medical Association Victoria said the mistake was unacceptable. President Dr Tony Bartone said the notices were upsetting for the doctors and their regular patients:

"We apologised unreservedly to affected clinics who, for the most part, were very understanding about the error," it said in a statement.

"This was a human error. In the process of changing the template which notifies a GP of his or her patient's death, the changes were saved to the standard template."

"Many of these GPs have long relationships with these patients and their families... It would have been distressing to receive such a fax, especially relating to the unexpected death of children and teenagers."

Patient care had not been affected, the company stressed.

Meanwhile, the Australian Medical Association said the error was unacceptable and potentially distressing to family doctors.