The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7195 p557-561
27 April 2002

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National Audit Office (www.nao.gov.uk)

Losses from NHS fraud down

Losses to the National Health Service as a result of fraud dropped by over a third between 1999 and 2001.

A report from the National Audit Office published earlier this week said that, for pharmaceutical and dental patient fraud, losses had dropped from £157m to £99m since 1999. During 2000–01 the NHS Counter Fraud Service had recovered over £4m, had made 30 successful prosecutions and had closed 33 successful civil and disciplinary cases. By March 2001, 484 cases of suspected fraud with an estimated value of £18.3m had been reported. Since then, reports of a further 445 cases had been made, worth £17m.