It is estimated that the NHS loses £1.21 billion per year, or roughly £3.3 million per day, to fraud. This is taxpayers' money that is taken away from patient care and falls into the hands of criminals. This is enough money to pay for over 40,000 staff nurses, or to purchase over 5,000 emergency ambulances. When we say 'fraud', we refer to a range of economic crimes, such as fraud, bribery and corruption or any other illegal acts committed by an individual or group of individuals to obtain a financial or professional gain.
AuditOne, the trust’s counter fraud provider works closely with the trust to combat fraud. We have a team of experienced counter fraud specialists delivering a full range of counter fraud, bribery and corruption services including prevention, detection and investigation. Our professionally qualified counter fraud specialists work to identify potential fraud, bribery and corruption risks through policy and system reviews and suggest remedial action to reduce and mitigate these risks. We are experienced in carrying out timely criminal investigations, from referral to prosecution.
AuditOne is an NHS consortium providing counter fraud services to 23 NHS and independent health care provider organisations across the North of England. It is hosted by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and is a not-for-profit organisation.
Kathryn Wilson Lead Counter Fraud Specialist
The Trust has a suite policies that focus on staff and organisational behaviour. By following these policies, staff working in or associated with the trust can help prevent fraud. These policies include:
The NHS Counter Fraud Authority have produced some useful reference and prevention guidance documents for NHS organisations. There are several fraud reference guides available which cover the following areas:
There are also eight quick guides which covering different types of procurement frauds to aid prevention of these types of fraud:
If you suspect fraud is occurring, you can help by reporting your suspicions confidentially to the counter fraud specialist.
Follow these simple guidelines when reporting your suspicions:
The trust’s counter fraud specialist can be contacted via the following:
Alternatively, you can phone the National Fraud and Corruption reporting line: 0800 028 40 60
All calls are made in strictest confidence and no attempt will be made to persuade you to provide your personal details if you want to remain anonymous. You will be given a call reference number which you can quote if you phone again with additional information.
Finally, you can report allegations of fraud online directly to the NHS Counter Fraud Authority at https://cfa.nhs.uk/reportfraud
Each NHS organisation is required to nominate a fraud champion whose role is to support the counter fraud specialist in promoting awareness of fraud across the trust. The trust’s fraud champion is Shaun Wayman, Head of Financial Services. Staff should be aware that fraud champions are not authorised to investigate allegations of fraud. Therefore, staff should not report suspicions to fraud champions.
