The number of NHS documents that went astray in a warehousing scandal is now approaching a million, MPs heard yesterday.

The documents largely comprise correspondence between GPs and NHS Trusts – and may also include GP correspondence to support services, such as details of patient records.

Officials had originally admitted to finding a little over 700,000 documents in warehouses owned by NHS Shared Business Services.

Yesterday MPs heard that an additional 162,000 documents have been found. Some 12,000 were held by SBS and another 150,000 were held by Capita, which has been providing services to NHS England.

The discoveries mean hours of additional work for practices, sifting correspondence for interrupted care.

According to officials, there is no evidence yet of patient harm from the failure to deliver documents. Some 5,500 cases have been the subject of clinical review – and so far reviewers have not yet finalised 941 of these.

An audit inquiry has found that managers at SBS were “obstructive and unhelpful” when the problem was first identified.

MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “You tell us the bombshell that whilst on a trawl of local trusts you find another 12,000 and then you found another 150,000 items.

“Until you have sifted through them, you don’t know if there is a serious case out there where someone is dying because the notes haven’t been transferred. So when are you going to get on top of this situation?”

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said the end of March next year was a “feasible goal.”

An NHS England spokesman said later: “These new cases have come to light as a result of our determination to leave no stone unturned and all these documents will be returned to GPs for clinical review where needed within the next ten weeks.

“People should be reassured that despite reviewing over 97% of the records that SBS failed to process not a single case of patient harm has been identified.”