Ministers urged to get a grip on NHS billions lost to fraud

THE NHS has lost £6billion to fraudsters stealing money through scams and stolen goods, as Labour called for the Government to do more to reclaim taxpayers’ money.

Analysis has shown that the health service has lost £6.16billion since 201516, despite claims by the Business Secretary earlier in the year that fraud is not something “people experience in their daily lives”.

Separate data from the NHS Counter Fraud Authority showed that it had recovered just £54million from fraudsters in 2020-21, less than half the amount recovered in 2019-20.

Crimes revealed by the NHSCFA included an IT manager who defrauded the NHS out of £800,000 for work that they never did .

One NHS employee was involved in the theft of medical supplies, which were sold back to the health service using a front company which was deemed to have cost £300,000 and was a threat to the safety of patients.

An NHS trust was paid £1.2million under the Government’s compensation scheme for fraud after it fell victim to an organised crime group. The group managed to defraud £12million from various public bodies, councils, and NHS trusts by forging documents and diverting payments to themselves.

Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “If the Government was less relaxed about losing public money to criminals, it might not need to raise taxes on working people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.”

The Treasury has previously come under scrutiny for a failure to regain billions of pounds lost to Covid loan fraudsters during the pandemic.

The Government’s own estimates suggested fraud and error losses of up to £20billion, with Parliament’s spending watchdog describing the sums as “unacceptable”.