Probe starts into ‘ghost patient’ care by Sussex councils

An investigation was launched after £120,000 of taxpayers’ money was paid by a council towards the care of dead people.

East Sussex County Council spent the money on people it believed were elderly and vulnerable and living in care homes in the county.

But actually although the people had once lived in East Sussex care homes, they had since died.

A similar situation occurred in West Sussex, although the council was not able to say how much money it invested in the care of “ghost patients”.

East Sussex County Council only released what was happened following the results of the 2010/2011 National Fraud Initiative.

Poor management

An investigation between Adult Social Care and Internal Audit revealed the errors occurred as a result of poor management on the part of the care homes, rather than fraud.

The overpaid money has now been paid back.

An East Sussex County Council spokesman said: “All the money – which amounted to about £120,000 – has already been paid back so there has been no loss whatsoever to council tax payers.

“We recovered the money as soon as the errors came to light and before the investigations were completed.

“At the end of the investigation we found no evidence of fraud but we did find admin errors at the homes.”

A council report into the situation said: “It was found that this issue has arisen as a result of poor administrative practices within the homes and a lack of awareness among staff at the homes of the correct procedures when a service user dies.”

A spokesman for West Sussex County Council said: “We are finding, these sums are recouped fairly quickly from payments owed to the home or by raising an invoice for overpaid sums.”

Brighton and Hove City Council had not responded to The Argus’ request for information as it went to press.