The NHS fraud story would be terrible, if it were true
▻http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/25/nhs-fraud-story-terrible-if-true
The independent fact-checking organisation Full Fact took a restrained approach to this data, which was presented on Panorama earlier this week: it merely said we couldn’t know from the evidence we have whether this figure is correct. We have data covering bent dentists (or “bentists” as this report tragically never calls them) and we have evidence of fraud related to patient charges, and the two figures combined amount to £229m (it sounds like a lot, but as a proportion of the NHS’s annual £100bn budget, isn’t). It’s also a long way from £5bn.
If you want to talk about fraud across government, the greatest losses by a mile are through tax fraud and procurement, our overall lesson is, don’t tangle with rich people or the private sector, unless you want to lose your shirt. But let’s worry about that some other time.