Patients face fine in curb on prescription fraud
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A crackdown on prescription fraud to save the NHS pounds 100m a year was announced by the Government yesterday. Patients who evade the pounds 5.60 prescription charge will be liable to a fixed penalty fine and a new criminal offence will be introduced for doctors, pharmacists or others who cheat the system. Alan Milburn, the Minister for Health, said the scale of the losses, revealed by a government efficiency scrutiny, was staggering - enough to pay for 14,500 heart bypass operations or 6,500 kidney transplants.
In a few cases doctors and pharmacists had invented non-existent patients. In one case in Leeds a doctor and a pharmacist had made about pounds 1m. Anti- counterfeiting devices are to be introduced into the printing of prescription forms and a reward scheme set up for pharmacies that detect stolen forms. Mr Milburn said: "This government is not prepared to tolerate this kind of law-breaking in the NHS ... Those who are currently defrauding the health service and the taxpayer should be under no illusion. We will find you and we will punish you."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments