Man used more than 70 aliases and fake illnesses to trick NHS staff to stay in hospitals.

[pampango]

Man 'banned' from using the NHS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10218577.stm

A homeless man who became an expert at faking illness so he could stay in hospital has been given a criminal Asbo. Counter-fraud experts say the fraud has cost the NHS tens of thousands of pounds.

Christopher Dearlove, 41, used more than 70 aliases to trick NHS staff into admitting him to hospital.

A judge at Bolton crown court has now banned Dearlove from using the NHS unless he is genuinely ill.

He knew which symptoms to report - and how to be classed as highly infectious so he could get his own room. Dearlove targeted hospitals all over the UK in a deception which is thought to have begun 15 years ago.
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I know the UK had started implementing a national ID system and has now scrapped it. I remember some threads discussing the need for a national ID here if national health care becomes a reality, though apparently the UK runs their NHS without one (perhaps this incident is an argument in favor of an ID).