By Andy McCue, 24 January 2007 16:50
NEWS
The NHS' fraud-busting unit has embarked on one of its biggest ever IT projects as part of its continued crackdown on the millions of pounds lost through fraud in the health service each year.
The NHS Counter Fraud Service (CFS) will use software from SAS for predictive data analysis which can indicate where fraud is most likely to occur and detect previously hidden trends in the data.
Using the same techniques banks use to spot fraudulent activity on credit cards, the software will also be able to analyse payments across the NHS and raise alerts for unusual activity, which can then be investigated by NHS counter-fraud specialists.
Tony Church, head of information systems at NHS CFS, told silicon.com the software will cover most of the large national NHS databases for both patients and employees.
He said: "It can monitor large data sets for fraudulent activity. You can ask the data any question."
The SAS Intelligence Platform will also be able to report on security incidents, such as violence against A&E staff, and pick out repeat offenders who wouldn't otherwise have been spotted because they give false information about their identity and address.
The system is expected to be fully operational by 1 April this year and Church said even if it only helps tackle 0.01 per cent of NHS fraud it will still save "millions".
Dermit McCausland, MD of NHS CFS, added in a statement: "This software will give the NHS an up-to-the-minute, cutting-edge capacity to detect and stop fraud."
The NHS CFS claims to have saved the health service more than £800m in fraud detection since 1999 and government figures released last August show overall patient fraud - such as prescription fraud - losses have been cut by 56 per cent to £76m.
Comments
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1. chris swain
NHS..National Help your Self to our money ?
Yet again I find I must say … scrap the NHS.Provide free healthcare through private sector.
Church said even if it only helps tackle 0.01 per cent of NHS fraud it will still save "millions".
If .01 percent of fraud even equates to £1million , that would suggest total fraud is at least
£10,000,000,000 (£10 billion) per year
The word Inept comes to mind.
2. anonymous
NHS contribution to April Fool's Day is early this year.
As ever, stupid economics and spurious arguements are put forward as a justification for wasting money on IT. No doubt this involves robbing funds for patient care (note the current panic reductions in hospital spending and the stop on recruitment of recently trained staff).
I believe Wanless ("I bankrupted the National Westminster Bank") was responsible for the silly strategy that said that the NHS should spend more on IT. He didn't know anything about the NHS (or banking!), and certainly hadn't a clue where, when, how or why that money was needed. Another great strategy from Blair!
3. Mr Donald Duck
Id ask Mr McCausland to substantiate the £800 million savings! He knows the figures are extrapolated from incorrect starting points and include massive double-counting as pointed out by the NAO in London.
4. Peter Dorrington
In response to Chris's comments; as a counter-fraud specialist working in both the Commerical and Public Sectors around the globe, I've seen more than enough evidence to convince me that fraud exists everywhere; it's just a question of scale & what you are prepared to do about it.
Rather than criticising the NHS, we should be applauding them for taking this logical next step in their ongoing fight against the unscrupulous criminals who are attempting to get rich on the misery of others. Every pound that the NHS protects from fraud is spent on healthcare - often for the most vulnerable members of society.
As to the level of benefit derived from the work of the NFS Counter Fraud Team - not only is it significant in any given year, they deliver these savings year, after year, after year. And we must remember that the NHS is one of the world's largest and most complex organisations and always will be whilst we (rightly) value good health.
Neither can one call the NHS' counter fraud actions (which have delivered £100m's since inception) 'inept' - many of the fraudsters that have been detected have been extremely clever, using sophisticated techniques and relying on the goodwill of the public to carry out their scams. Furthermore, some of the largest frauds have been committed by Private Sector organisations. Far from being inept, the NHS now has one of the most comprehensive & effective counter-fraud strategies anywhere - regardless of sector.
In summary, the argument about how the NHS is funded and delivered is spurious - in my professional opinion, Chris' proposal would probably result in more fraud, not less and lacks merit.