NHS Protect formed part of the

NHS Business Services Authority The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care which provides a number of support services to the National Health Service in England and Wales. It was create ...

of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

until 2017. It had responsibility in

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for tackling fraud, violence, bribery, corruption, criminal damage, theft and other unlawful action such as market-fixing, and it had responsibility for tackling fraud in the NHS in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It employed 160 people. NHS Protect was replaced by the NHS Counter Fraud Authority in April 2017.

Theft

In July 2014 a former NHS employee, Barry Cosson, was sentenced to five years in prison, following an investigation by NHS Protect. Cosson had defrauded the NHS of £2.2 million when he managed the payment systems for East Sussex Primary Care Trusts.

Price fixing

In June 2013 the

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

infiltrated reporters into the annual Pharmacy Congress to investigate malpractice in the market for Specials. These products are generally individually priced. In November 2013 the paper reported that "The prices of more than 20,000 drugs could have been artificially inflated, with backhanders paid to chemists who agreed to sell them" and that NHS Protect had mounted an investigation.

Violence against staff

In November 2013 it was reported that the number of criminal sanctions taken in cases of violence against NHS Staff had risen from 1257 in 2011/2 to 1458 in 2012/3, a rise of 15.9%. There was a rise of 5.8% in total reported assaults from 59,744 in 2011-12 to 63,199 in 2012-13.

References

{{reflist

External links

NHS Protect
National Health Service (England) NHS Wales Fraud in England