A whistleblower's hotline to expose fraud and corruption in the NHS was launched by health ministers yesterday to try to stop pharmacists, GPs and dentists cheating the health service. A whistleblower's hotline to expose fraud and corruption in the NHS was launched by health ministers yesterday to try to stop pharmacists, GPs and dentists cheating the health service. The new confidential phone line will allow NHS staff to report suspected incidences of fraud, including the writing of false prescriptions.Lord Hunt of Kings Heath,a Health minister, said the phone line would stop dishonest NHS employees and patients draining public money. "The vast majority of patients and professionals are honest but there are those who seek to abuse the resources of the NHS," he said."The hotline will back up the wide range of anti-fraud initiatives already in place, and will improve the arrangements for the detection of fraud. By doing so we will free up resources for better patient care."The writing of false prescriptions costs the NHS an estimated £100m a year and includes claims by the public for free prescriptions for which they do not qualify.

There has been a £48m reduction in fraud since 1999.The new fraud line, designed to deal with up to 500 calls a week, will be staffed by "trained specialist operators" who will pass details to NHS "counter fraud operatives" for investigation. But there is a fear some of the calls may be malicious attempts to discredit colleagues.The Tories criticised the scheme as a gimmick. "This is indicative of the Government's priorities," said Dr Liam Fox, the Health spokesman.

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"While patients are unnecessarily dying of cancer and heart disease the Government is busy doing publicity stunts.". Winnie the Pooh and his mates are "seriously troubled individuals" and in dire need of psychoactive drugs, say Canadian researchers. Winnie the Pooh and his mates are "seriously troubled individuals" and in dire need of psychoactive drugs, say Canadian researchers. The characters of A A Milne's children's stories are exposed in an only partly tongue-in-cheek report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. A team of neuro-developmentalists from the University of Halifax want to highlight that even the most wonderful people can suffer from mental disorders.Pooh suffers from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says Sarah Shea, the team's leader.

"We cannot help but wonder how much richer Pooh's life might be were he to have a trial of low-dose stimulant medication."Among other findings, anxious little Piglet "clearly suffers from a generalised anxiety disorder". And Eeyore has chronic negativism and would benefit from anti-depressants and counselling so that he could "see the humour in the whole tail-losing episode".. "Are they his paintings?" asked a chronically underinformed man in the Waterstone's press corral. "Lucky he can sing, then." "Are they his paintings?" asked a chronically underinformed man in the Waterstone's press corral. "Lucky he can sing, then." The framed pictures flanking the desk where Sir Paul McCartney was due to sign copies of his new book didn't look that bad to me - a fair match, as it happened, for the sweet chromatics of the music.