Fraud against the NHS is a drain on the valuable assets meant for patient care and costs the health service billions of pounds every year. Types of fraud and offenders can include:
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Patients falsely claiming travel expenses;
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Staff may gain employment with false documentation;
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Staff may claim pay for shifts they did not work;
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Contractors may exaggerate or falsify records of NHS work.
However, it is clear that fraud prevents health services from being run in the best possible way and impacts on staff and resources.
Each health body has its own Local Counter Fraud Specialist (LCFS) who is responsible for overseeing its fraud-proofing measures, studying the financial comings and goings, looking for anything suspicious, raising awareness of the issues and investigating suspicions of fraud. The LCFS for West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust is Jennifer Rennison.
Jennifer works for Parkhill, an NHS hosted organisation with offices across England. Parkhill’s experience and approach ensure that the guilty are brought to account and that the innocent retain their reputations.
It is clear from the national strategy to counter fraud that reducing its incidence begins with measures to deter and prevent it. Annual counter fraud work plans include the preparation of a local counter fraud strategy and staff guide. Fraud awareness training stresses how all employees, doing their jobs properly, are key barriers to the would-be fraudsters. Planned proactive reviews look for evidence of past or current frauds in key areas of risk, like payments for temporary staff.
The work of LCFSs and the NHS Counter Fraud Service has already recovered hundreds of millions of pounds of NHS money and led to many fraudsters being prosecuted. However, to assist these efforts to reduce losses to fraud, we need the help and support of every honest person who works in and uses the NHS. By knowing how to recognise and report any fraud that does occur, we can all help to ensure that the public funds of the NHS are spent on patient care – which, after all, is what the health service was created for, 60 years ago.
If you have any suspicions of fraud taking place at West Middlesex University Hospitals NHS Trust, or would simply like more information on the counter fraud service, please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer on 020 8869 7459 or 07788566755.
