THE Department of Health suspected as long as 18 years ago that pharmacists were defrauding the General Medical Services Payments Board of almost €14 million a year in claims for discounted medicine prices, it was reported in a High Court judgment yesterday.

AS many as 325 family doctors and 55 pharmacists earned €240,001 or more under General Medical Services (GMS) Schemes last year.

DOCTORS in the eastern region were paid for treating 12,419 dead patients because health boards failed to remove names of the deceased from medical card holder lists.