12 January 2007
NHS anti-fraud work has saved the service £811m over the past seven years, the Department of Health said this week.
The news came as the department's director of counter fraud services, Jim Gee, announced his departure. Gee, who has led the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service since it was set up in 1998, told Public Finance that the £811m saved represented a 12:1 return on the investment the NHS had made in counter fraud work.
Fraud committed by patients fell by 55% — from the baseline level of £171m in 1998 to £76m in 2006. This included £70m saved by preventing patients claiming free prescriptions to which they were not entitled.
The CFSMS had also cut false claims from clinicians for attendance and home visits by around 60%.
'I don't think this success has been down to me but because the NHS has united behind a common purpose,' Gee said. 'All too often you hear stories of the NHS being divided but this is an example of everybody getting together with determination to deliver a successful outcome.'
Despite his departure, Gee insisted the CFSMS would develop its work and was tackling two major new areas — payroll and procurement.
At the end of this financial year it is due to announce how much it has saved by cutting losses in payroll fraud and within 18 months will publish the amount being lost through procurement frauds.
Gee, who has become director of fraud services at consultancy firm KPMG, said the CFSMS would continue to wage a successful battle against fraud as long as it remained independent and retained the backing of staff, officials and politicians. He has been succeeded by his deputy Steve Phillips.
Richard Douglas, the DoH's director of finance and investment, said: 'Jim has done an excellent job in helping to protect the public purse and through this ensuring resources are used for the purposes intended — better patient care.'
PFjan2007
