Prescription fraud costs Wales £15m a year

Some £15m ($21m) a year in prescription charges is being lost to the NHS in Wales by patients wrongly claiming exemptions from charges.

Auditors have found that in 9% of the cases where people had claimed exemption from prescription charges they had no entitlement to do so.

The National Audit Office Wales is now urging a better follow up system for checking that the people who have claimed exemption are entitled to do so. The office also wants similar checks for entitlement to free optical and dental services.

The office said that concern has been expressed for some time that potential income from prescription charges was being lost. The NHS in Wales …