NHS (Theft and Corruption) (Hansard, 11 February 1985)

§ Mr. Michael Meacher (Oldham, West)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 10, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the detailed revelation that has just been made of the magnitude of theft and corruption in the National Health Service by a number of consultants who abuse NHS facilities in their practice of private medicine at a cost to the public purse of some tens of millions of pounds a year.

The matter is specific because, for the first time, after an in-depth audit of 37 district health authorities after the revelation of significant fraud at Sutton Coldfield last summer, several hospitals and consultants were named in a detailed analysis of the official evidence by a "TV Eye" programme last Thursday evening entitled "Consultants on the Make." It revealed point by point how even the recently tightened procedures adopted by many health authorities cannot prevent abuse by private medicine on a significant scale, and showed that it is now becoming endemic in the National Health Service.

The matter is of vital national importance because it reveals that the fundamental principles of the NHS are being eroded, not by the odd rotten apple in the barrel here and there, but systematically and all over the country. In Darlington, consultants destroyed 27 key forms which showed that fees were owed to the NHS. In Merthyr Tydfil, NHS patients were told that they would have to become private patients if they wanted hospital treatment urgently. In Sutton Coldfield, after the original row had been made public and a tightening-up exercise instituted, consultants' fees to the Good Hope hospital suddenly increased by £1,000 a month. In Wakefield, consultants manufactured forms to conceal evidence of having treated private patients. In Derby, NHS laboratory facilities were used for testing hundreds of animal specimens for local vets, without the knowledge or permission of the health authority, and such tests were given precedence over tests for some human patients. Yet the "TV Eye" programme shows that those examples are only the tip of the iceberg.

This matter is urgent for two main reasons. First, Ministers have a clear public duty to stop this haemorrhage of public funds from the abuses now uncovered as being of a serious and growing magnitude. The annual loss to the Exchequer is already substantially greater that the annual income to the Exchequer from the overseas visitor regulations which the Government insisted on introducing because a tiny number of foreigners were not making full payment of fees to the National Health Service.

The matter is also urgent because in any other walk of life theft on this scale would have resulted in instant dismissal and criminal proceedings, possibly involving years in prison.

Where persons are found to have been deliberately using their positions of power and prestige to defraud the rest of the community, the issue should be taken up without delay. The individuals concerned should be named and dealt with immediately. I submit that it is incumbent upon us to ensure, for the good name of the House, that that happens. For these reasons, I request that the matter be debated in the House at the earliest opportunity.