Two doctors have wrongly been handed almost £1million in public money after they were accused of misconduct, it can be revealed.
The suspended medics received £964,000 from the NHS that they were not entitled to, prompting a furious response from the spending watchdog.
In one case, the doctor continued to receive their massive taxpayer-funded salary long after they had been struck off the medical register for wrongdoing.
NHS England is trying to claw back the £473,747 it mistakenly gave the medic, but admits the prospects of success are low. The police are also investigating.
In the second case, health service lawyers have given up hope of recovering the overpayments, totalling £489,766, which were wrongly paid for five years even though the doctor was never entitled to them.
The suspended medics received £964,000 from the NHS that they were not entitled to, prompting a furious response from the spending watchdog
The huge waste of public money prompted public spending watchdog Gareth Davies to declare the payments ‘irregular’.
The Comptroller and Auditor General wrote in NHS England’s new accounts: ‘Removal of a medical practitioner from the medical register can often involve serious misconduct and I consider ineligible payment in those circumstances to be contentious.
‘NHS England should have had checks in place to prevent or detect such payments. I have therefore qualified my regularity opinion on the consolidated accounts.’
Mistake: The NHS annual report said the payments were ‘a serious control failing resulting from an absence of appropriate checks to ensure the ongoing entitlement’
Some doctors, dentists and opticians are entitled to be paid while under investigation for alleged wrongdoing, while in other cases they are not meant to receive anything. The payments should be stopped immediately if they are removed from the medical register.
However, last year NHS England discovered it had paid £489,766 over five years to a medical practitioner who was ‘never entitled to suspension payments’. The annual report admitted ‘a serious control failing in 2017-18 had led to the commencement of suspension payments in error’.
‘The suspension payments continued until 2021-22, when a change in how suspended medical practitioners were paid suspension payments by NHS England brought this case to light,’ it said.
But it added: ‘In this case NHS England is not pursuing recovery of the overpaid suspension payments following legal advice.’
Some doctors, dentists and opticians are entitled to be paid while under investigation for alleged wrongdoing, while in other cases they are not meant to receive anything
In the other case, a doctor suspended in May 2017 kept getting paid for several years after they were struck off in 2018-19.
‘NHS England should have stopped paying suspension payments to this doctor following their removal from its medical performers list,’ the report read. ‘However, NHS England continued making suspension payments to this individual until May 2021.
‘Consequently, NHS England made payments of £473,747 over the financial years 2018-19 to 2021-22 in error.
‘This was a serious control failing resulting from an absence of appropriate checks to ensure the ongoing entitlement.
‘In this case NHS England is pursuing recovery of the overpaid suspension payments but considers the prospect of recovery is low.’
Standard procedure: Payments to NHS workers should be stopped immediately if they are removed from the medical register
The report also notes that this ‘is being pursued as part of an ongoing criminal investigation’.
The NHS insists it has now improved its procedures for suspension payments to ensure similar errors do not reoccur.
‘This includes implementing new procedural guidance that ensures payments are not made to medical practitioners until entitlement to suspension payment is validated by a named responsible individual in the region,’ the annual report states.
‘All regional leads now complete monthly monitoring of suspensions, their status and payments being made.
‘There is further improvement to controls by reporting all current suspension payments monthly via a Professional Standards Oversight Group, which contains national medical representation, which allows for peer review and improves visibility of all current cases.
‘A training process for regional leads has also been carried out with emphasis on the policy and its application.’