| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| GP 'ghost patients' to be investigated by NHS fraud squad |
| 2019-06-12 |
| [BBC] The NHS fraud squad is investigating GPs in England amid suspicions they are claiming for non-existent patients. Doctors get an average of £150 a year for each patient on their list, but records show there were 3.6 million more patients in the system last year than there were people in England. The discrepancy prompted NHS England to employ a company to start chasing up these so-called ghost patients. The NHS Counter Fraud Authority is now launching its own investigation. Doctors' leaders have always insisted the issue of ghost patients most often has an innocent explanation, such as instances where patients have died or moved without the knowledge of their GP. It is understood the list-cleaning exercise, being carried out for NHS England by the business services company Capita has started to see a reduction in the numbers being claimed for. It has focused on patients who have not visited their doctor for five years. Attempts have been made to contact those patients and where they have not been found they have been deregistered from the practice. But NHS fraud investigators have been carrying out some sample testing of transactions, which the BBC understands has identified some "anomalies" that have raised suspicions. The fraud team will now carry out a full analysis of records held by NHS England and the NHS Business Services Authority, which administer the payments systems to GP practices, to see if doctors have been fraudulently claiming for patients. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #3 This is what happens when you recognize GPs and medical graduates from India and Pakistan as doctors and give them fancy social welfare schemes to play havoc with. Getting a medical degree in India is a negotiable exercise for the rich. I suspect it may be the same in Pak. These bright young graduates buy their way into a practice in the UK. Masters of gaming a similar, less trusting system back home, they begin to scam the decrepit NHS. Some are caught and sent back, some can actually not only cost the UK millions but also cost people their lives, being treated at their hands. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/dozens-of-bogus-doctors-found-in-health-service-able-to-fool-the-nhs-1320705.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/britains-highest-paid-gp-barred-from-practising-over-claims-of-nhs-fraud-6809183.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3543899/72-struck-NHS-doctors-overseas-cases-include-Indian-GP-ran-immigration-scam-Malaysian-medic-secretly-filmed-female-patients.html |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-06-12 15:11 |
| #2 Kind of like our voting rolls. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2019-06-12 15:07 |
| #1 there were 3.6 million more patients in the system last year than there were people in England. Illegals and medtourism or just lack of proper identification? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-06-12 14:51 |