Government to create Anti-Fraud Unit in the NHS in collaboration with PJ and PGR

"The legislation necessary for the creation of this Unit is being finalized and will go to the Council of Ministers by the end of the month," said the Health Minister's office, in a written note sent to Lusa.

The creation of a Fraud Combat Unit in the NHS, which was reported today by Jornal de Notícias , was already included in the government's Program.

According to the Ministry of Health, in a note sent to Lusa today, "the mission of the new unit is to detect, prevent and combat fraud, abuse and irregularities, with the aim of ensuring that public resources invested in the NHS are used to serve citizens."

The unit, which will be nationwide, will operate “in collaboration with the Judicial Police ( PJ ) and the Attorney General's Office ( PGR ), among other entities”.

In May, it was reported that a dermatologist at the Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon received €400,000 for 10 Saturdays of additional work in 2024, with one of the days being used to remove benign lesions from his parents.

On Wednesday, the chief executive of the NHS said it was "perfectly possible" for a doctor "who works hard" to earn €400,000 a year by performing additional surgeries in public hospitals to reduce waiting lists.

"If there were no fraud—we don't know, because the investigation isn't complete—it's entirely possible that there isn't fraud and a doctor who works hard could earn around €400,000 a year. We can't conclude from this that there's a lack of oversight," said Álvaro Almeida, head of the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS), during a parliamentary hearing.

Last month it became known that a dermatologist at the same hospital had registered surgeries performed in her name on a day when she was participating in a conference in Italy, and that she had received 113 thousand euros for seven Saturdays of additional work.

On Thursday, TVI/CNN reported that the Braga hospital had signed several contracts, worth more than 27 million euros, with the company of the director of the Ophthalmology service, who also held coordination roles in the private sector.

The ministry notes that "the creation of specialized units to combat fraud in the public health sector is common practice in many developed countries," including the United Kingdom and Denmark.

According to Jornal de Notícias, the new unit is expected to be operational by the end of this year.

In 2012, a similar unit was created in Portugal to detect suspected cases of fraud in the NHS . At the time, the Ministry of Health was headed by Paulo Macedo.

The Information Exploration Unit (UEI) “made it possible to flag and communicate to the competent authorities 80 suspected cases, representing more than 82.5 million euros”.

These cases were added to those "formally communicated", reaching a value that, in Paulo Macedo's accounts, revealed in April 2013 in a parliamentary hearing, exceeded one hundred million euros.