March 24, 2014 Industry news
A Panorama programme aired last night claimed that fraud costs the NHS £7bn per year – although the Department for Health estimates the figure at around £229m.
Whichever of these figures is closer the truth, fraud does appear to be a genuine issue that negatively impacts upon the NHS’ capacity to operate efficiently. Yet settling on a universally-agreed figure in relation to fraud losses will not solve the problem; we believe the focus instead should be on the demonstrable savings that can be made, and which are already in evidence within supply chains in other sectors.
One such area is around better procurement processes, which would be self-funding and could offer the NHS annual savings of £2bn if GS1 standards were widely implemented. While this would not stamp out fraud entirely, it would undoubtedly reduce the threat of it in addition to helping Trusts to save money, time and resources which could then be better deployed in eradicating fraud and improving tracking and traceability, which would offer far-reaching benefits for patient safety generally.
Chris Doyle, Industry Marketing Manager - Healthcare, GS1 UK