There is an interesting piece in the P & J today detailing how ScotGov are paying Scottish dentists for people who are actually dead, or have moved abroad, or to another practice and hence are being counted twice or in some cases three times.
The scale of the problem is staggering, involving almost 150,000 cases and costing upwards of £6 million annually.
ScotGov pays dentists 96 pence for every NHS adult on their books, and over £14 for every teenager. However, there are no systems in place for recording when some-one has moved, or has indeed died, and the dentists get paid regardless. The information has only recently came to light, ScotGov being oblivious to the problem.
Our public services are vitally important to us all, and require to be protected in the forthcoming era of public sector spending cuts, but many people do wonder how the Scottish budget can have doubled under devolution and we have had somewhat less than a doubling of the service provided as a result on that. This little episode seems to confirm a least one leak in the bucket, and doubtless there will be many others as well.
It is well known that our teeth are the first part of us to start to rot when we are alive, but the last part to go when we are dead. It appears as if Scottish dentists are taking advantage of this. Indeed, taking advantage of us.
This is nothing less than a scandal, the story will doubtless run now, and who knows where it will go.? It will be a scandal if it were not pursued.
It would appear that in terms of our Scottish "government" at least, that us Scots are not so canny with public money after all.
David Cameron and George Osbourne will no doubt be feeling vindicated, having suddenly been given ammunation like this to fire back at us.
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