THE Primary Care Trust in Herefordshire is hunting down people who cheat by falsely claiming exemption to NHS prescription charges.

The scale of the fraud locally is not known but nationally the NHS is said to lose millions of pounds each year.

Herefordshire PCT, like others in the country, is now routinely planning to carry out checks on patients' claims for charges.

The trust said honest mistakes can be made and these will be treated sympathetically but if fraud is proved people will face penalty charges, a further surcharge of up to £50 for non-payment and, possibly, civil recovery through court action.

The trust will carry out its checks with the help of the national NHS prescription pricing authority.

The NHS allows trusts to impose a penalty charge where people wrongly fail to pay charges in respect of drugs and medicines, dental treatment and appliances, optical services, or receive payment or benefit towards the cost of an NHS charge or service to which they are not entitled, such as spectacle vouchers or free NHS eye tests.

If the PCT finds any discrepancies in claims, patients will be contacted directly and asked to provide proof of the exemption.

Marcia Pert, director of finance, said: "The PCT takes any incidence of fraud very seriously and it is important that we do everything we can to tackle it.

"I hope that by taking this proactive step with regard to prescription charges we can reduce the amount of NHS money that is being diverted away from patient care."

People needing advice over entitlement to exemption can ring a help line 0845 850 1166 or pick up a HC11 leaflet from a job centre, hospital, surgery, pharmacy, dental practice or opticians.