Patients ordered to pay NHS back following fraudulent claims
Hundreds of NHS patients have been ordered to pay money back after investigations revealed that they had fraudulently claimed free dental check-ups and prescriptions.
Last year, more than £40,000 was claimed fraudulently; 377 people have been ordered to pay money back to NHS Lothian as a result of wrongly claiming free prescriptions and an additional 343 people have been told to pay money back as a result of claiming free dental and vision checks.
Investigations carried out by the NHS Counter Fraud Services Team in Scotland uncovered the fraudulent claims; the service investigates around 60,000 claims each year and examines claims made by people who claim free prescriptions, eye tests and dental check-ups. It is estimated that fraud costs NHS Lothian around three million pounds each year; however, many of the cases are impossible to prove.
The investigations found that the majority of people who wrongly claimed free checks and prescriptions were receiving incapacity benefits, which they should not have qualified for; as a result, they were wrongly allowed to claim free prescriptions, eye tests and dental checks.
Fraud costs the NHS millions of pounds each year and takes up funds that could be used to improve frontline services; a spokeswoman from the Counter Fraud Team said that fraud was completely unacceptable and claimed that the team would be clamping down on people who attempted to defraud the system.
Local Conservative MSP, Gavin Brown, has condemned the cheating patients and suggested that a zero tolerance policy should be taken in the future.
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