Health Minister Alan Milburn has announced the creation of national and regional teams of fraudbusters to target those stealing NHS money and to produce policies to prevent theft.

Fraud is estimated to cost the NHS£150m a year.

Past cases of NHS fraud include:

• A dentist who claimed £212,000 over two years by submitting claims for patients who did not exist;
• An optician who claimed for eye tests and the supply of glasses to dead patients;
• A GP and a pharmacist who conspired to cheat the prescription system of more than £1m;
• A storeman who, over a period of one year, accepted gifts as payment for placing 40 years worth of orders from a supplier;
• A patient who falsely claimed more than £2,500 a year in travel expenses to an outpatient clinic.

The move comes ahead of an Audit Commission report, which is expected to criticise the lack of effort to track down the perpetrators of NHS fraud.

Mr Milburn said: "The overwhelming majority of patients and professionals would not dream of stealing from the NHS but a small minority of patients and health service staff are doing just that.

"Every time they commit fraud, patient care suffers. Those who are exploiting the system are not only cheating taxpayers, they are depriving patients of the care they need."

Fraud takes many forms

Alan Milburn: determined to root out fraud

Mr Milburn said NHS fraud took many forms, sometimes it was low value and opportunistic, and other times high value and committed by skilled and highly organised criminals.

"Combating fraud in the NHS is a professional job. The presumption should be about preventing fraud by designing systems to stop it happening in the first place," he said.

"But where it occurs there should be an equal presumption that its perpetrators will face tough action."

The initiative will be coordinated by a new Directorate of Counter Fraud Services (DCFS).

There will also be new regional teams of specialist fraud-busters working with health authorities and other NHS organisations in all parts of the country.

The aim is to reduce fraud to an "absolute minimum within 10 years" and save at least £75m a year by cutting prescription fraud by the year 2003.

The new Director of DCFS, Jim Gee, said: "From April 1999, we will be investing more than £4m in our counter-fraud work.

"We will ensure that trained accredited professionals are in place in each part of the health service, tasked with taking effective action against fraud.