FRAUDSTERS have conned the NHS out of more than £7billion over the last six years, analysis shows.
The figure would have been enough to pay the salaries of 17,000 nurses and 8,000 GPs.
GOV.UKFormer Health Minister Edward Argar has admitted the NHS has lost billions to fraud[/caption]
Analysis by Labour shows the health service lost an extra £54 million to fraud, bribery, and corruption last year compared with 2019/20.
One criminal gang stole £300,000 worth of medical supplies before selling them back to the NHS.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “The Government is letting fraudsters get away with stealing public funds, and taxpayers are paying the price.
“If the Tories weren’t so relaxed about criminals walking off with billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, they could afford to train the doctors and nurses the NHS needs.”
The Department of Health and Social Care’s Annual Accounts show £1.2billion of the NHS budget was lost to fraud in 20/21.
Health Minister Edward Argar previously revealed that the NHS has lost £6.2billion to fraud in the five years up to 19/20.
Added to this year’s figure, a total of nearly £7.4billion of NHS funds have been lost to fraud in the past six years.
The numbers include fraud from a criminal gang that diverted payments of £1.2 million from separate NHS trusts.
They also include a dentist in Westminster who made 378 fraudulent claims totalling £73,000, while working a two-day week instead of the five-day week she claimed.
It comes after a bogus psychiatrist who earned more than £1million from the NHS faces jail for fraud.
Zholia Alemi faked a medical degree from New Zealand to register here in 1995 then landed jobs at several trusts.
She worked with potentially vulnerable patients, earning between £1million and £1.3million