A new government group, established to counter health professional fraud in Northern Ireland, investigated three alleged cases of ophthalmic fraud in its first year Ð and one of those has already been dropped.
The Counter Fraud Unit in Northern Ireland was set up in January 2001 to tackle exemption fraud, and during the year the unit has been involved in 14 investigations, including six pharmaceutical and four dental cases.
Of the three cases involving ophthalmic practitioners, two remain on-going while the third has been completed with a recommendation that Ôno furtherÉaction is requiredÕ.