Current Fraud Alerts
Impersonating a Medical Professional
The following are some actions that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of such a fraud being successful: Ensure you are fully assured that any agencies being utilised are undertaking robust pre-employment
Be vigilant for underperformance and challenge this immediately to protect patient safety in the event that someone is suspected of impersonating a medical professional.
The NHS Counter Fraud Authority has identified a trend in fraud offences relating to the impersonation of medical professionals. This is where a member of bank or agency staff registers with an agency, meets the identification and qualification requirements and books onto several shifts but where the person that turns up to carry out the work is a completely different person. These frauds are proving to be successful due to robust ID checks not being carried out when the person arrives to work and in many cases, the person will arrive late to ensure there is more pressure on the need to begin work, which overrides the ID checks that may otherwise be carried out. The NHS Counter Fraud Authority reports that in one case, an agency nurse booked onto hundreds of shifts across multiple counties, but an unknown number of unqualified people posed as the original nurse and worked the shifts instead. This type of fraud raises significant concerns for patient safety.
Mandate Fraud
checks on all individuals, in compliance with the NHS Employment Standards.
There is an ongoing need to protect the NHS against mandate fraud. Mandate fraud is a type of fraud in which a criminal makes contact with an NHS organisation and requests a change to a bank account mandate, such as a direct debit, standing order, or bank transfer mandate. The criminal will often pose as a legitimate supplier or contractor, and may provide forged documentation to support their request. The genuine supplier details are usually obtained from a range of sources including email interception, insider knowledge, social media, and open-source research.
During the interview stage, check a form of photo ID of the prospective candidate to ensure the photograph is a true likeness of the person being interviewed. When the person arrives for their first day of work, check their photo ID again to ensure the person who has arrived for work is the person expected. Be aware of any attempts of them to conceal their identity, such as refusing to remove a face mask as this could be an indicator that they are not who they claim to be.
4 | SCRUTTON BLAND | COUNTER FRAUD
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog