NHS agency falsely accuses more than 340,000 of prescription fraud

[helvella]

NHS agency falsely accuses more than 340,000 of prescription fraud

Penalty notice system is dysfunctional, warns head of patients’ group

Hundreds of thousands of NHS patients are being wrongly accused of fraudulently claiming free prescriptions and are being threatened with fines.

Data released under the Freedom of Information Act shows that 1,052,430 penalty notices were issued to patients in England in 2017 – about double the level in the previous year.

The fines, which carry a maximum penalty of £100 and are issued to those who wrongly claim free medication, are issued after an NHS exemption certificate has expired.

But the data confirms that 342,882 penalty notices were subsequently withdrawn because the patient was entitled to the free prescription.

Rest of article available here - and please do read it (even if you are not in England):

theguardian.com/society/201...

[Musicmonkey]

What an utter waste of valuable resources

[Hidden]

Thanks for this helvella I had no idea this went on. I see somebody has commented on thyroid matters in response to a GP bemoaning that thyroid patients received free prescriptions!

[Treepie]

Over the years there have been many frauds committed by dentists.

Read recently how a Manchester couple of NHS managers had been jailed for fraud ,ordering goods at sky high prices from their own companies.Guess what,the wife ga been reemployed by a Trust on resource management .You could not make it up. You can in the NHS.