FOI Request
- Disclosure ID
- FOI/02383
- Request Date
- April 24, 2018
- Subject
- Surgery/Treatment Fraud
- Description
- Has any trust employee – over the last 10 years- obtained surgery or treatment on the NHS for a foreign national not entitled to NHS surgery or treatment.
- Please can you list the number of times this has happened stating how many trust employees have been involved
- For each employee who has fraudulently obtained free treatment can you provide the following information:
- their job title
- the number of treatments/surgery obtained in each case of fraud
- specify every treatment/surgery fraudulently obtained with the cost for each treatment/surgery
- the total cost of fraud for each employee
- In each case what action was taken by the trust.
- Was the matter investigated either locally or nationally, or both, by NHS counter fraud investigators.
- Was that member of staff sacked or disciplined
- Was the matter referred for criminal prosecution. If so, what was the outcome
- Did the trust recover all or some of the money for the fraudulently obtained treatment/surgery
- Can you tell me how many of those who defrauded the trust were medical professionals who are registered with a medical regulator such as the GMC or NMC.
- Please list how many of these individuals were referred by the trust for investigation on grounds of professional misconduct. Where they were referred please specify to which professional body, the type of fraud and how much money was lost by the trust.
- Please can you tell me the outcome of each referral?
- Response
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals take all allegations of fraud very seriously. The Trust’s Local Counter Fraud Specialist works to the criminal standard, as such staff investigations conducted have resulted in sanctions equating to formal criminal records. However, such cases were not conducted in the public domain; therefore the personal details of the investigative subjects will remain confidential.
The information you have requested relates to a very small number of individuals and is classed as personal data. To provide further detail may breach their confidentiality and therefore we are exempting this information under section 40(2) of the FOI Act. - Please see answer above
- The information you have requested relates to a very small number of individuals and is classed as personal data. To provide further detail may breach their confidentiality and therefore we are exempting this information under section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
- Should any employee breach their employment contract in respect of fraudulent activity, they would be subject to the disciplinary policy, classified under gross misconduct. Due to the serious nature of fraud allegations against members of staff, we would always make our Local Counter Fraud Specialist aware of any allegation in case of pursuance of a criminal matter.
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals take all allegations of fraud very seriously. The Trust’s Local Counter Fraud Specialist works to the criminal standard, as such staff investigations conducted in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 have resulted in sanctions equating to formal criminal records. However, such cases were not conducted in the public domain; therefore the personal details of the investigative subjects will remain confidential.
The information you have requested relates to a very small number of individuals and is classed as personal data. To provide further detail may breach their confidentiality and therefore we are exempting this information under section 40(2) of the FOI Act. - The information you have requested relates to a very small number of individuals and is classed as personal data. To provide further detail may breach their confidentiality and therefore we are exempting this information under section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
- The information you have requested relates to a very small number of individuals and is classed as personal data. To provide further detail may breach their confidentiality and therefore we are exempting this information under section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
- Please see answers above
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals take all allegations of fraud very seriously. The Trust’s Local Counter Fraud Specialist works to the criminal standard, as such staff investigations conducted have resulted in sanctions equating to formal criminal records. However, such cases were not conducted in the public domain; therefore the personal details of the investigative subjects will remain confidential.