Only three people were convicted of defrauding the NHS last year despite the problem costing the health service up to £100 million annually, MSP were told today.
It is estimated up to 1% of the NHS budget could be lost to fraud each year.
Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon launched a new crackdown earlier this week aimed at deterring and identifying fraud committed by staff, clinicians, contractors or patients.
Examples of NHS fraud include patients claiming to be exempt from charges for dental treatment or prescription charges, as well as falsifying prescriptions to obtain more drugs.
Other examples are staff claiming expenses for journeys that have not been made, or claiming overtime for hours that were not worked.
Speaking during First Minister's Questions, Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: "Given the estimated £100 million filtered out of the NHS each year by fraud, is the First Minister concerned that only 135 charges were reported to the procurator fiscal with a paltry number of three convictions?"
Alex Salmond replied: "I agree with the member than any fraud against the NHS is unacceptable.
"Which is precisely why, of course, we launched the new zero tolerance initiative last Monday to tackle exactly this growing problem within the national health service, I'm sure the whole chamber wants to unite in effective action to tackle."
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