20 February 2004
The fight against prescription fraud will continue despite a 60% reduction in the losses suffered by the health service in the past four years.
Jim Gee, head of the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service, revealed that the value of free prescriptions fraudulently claimed by patients had fallen from £117m in 1998/99 to £47m in 2002/03.
Ministers will feel vindicated in establishing the CFSMS. Its predecessor, the Counter Fraud Service, was set up in 1998 with prescription fraud as one of its main targets. Since then, it has introduced additional checks on entitlement and pharmacists can also claim a £70 reward for identifying fraudulent prescriptions. Patients who falsely claim free prescriptions now face a penalty charge of up to £100.
The reduction in prescription fraud exceeds the target of a 50% cut by 2002/03 included in the Department of Health's Public Service Agreement. And Gee said that up to the end of 2002/03 the CFSMS had saved the NHS almost £320m, a 16-to-one return on its total budget of £20m since 1999.
'This is a significant reduction in levels of fraud, and good news for the NHS and the patients who rely on it. We are not complacent and will now redouble our efforts to further reduce these losses,' he said.
Health minister Melanie Johnson added: 'There is no room for complacency and much still to do. This government is determined that fraud losses will continue to be reduced and more money made available for the best possible patient care.'
PFfeb2004
