HEALTH campaigner Russ McLean called on the NHS Pensions scheme to improve its systems to detect when its members have died.

Earlier this week the Lancashire Telegraph reported how 650 payments have been made to deceased former health workers in East Lancashire, totalling more than £186,000 over ten years.

Nationally, the overpayments totalled nearly £30 million, with more than 70,000 transactions.

Experts said many of the payments continued to be made because of fraud on the part of relatives, as the pension scheme relies on families informing it of the death.

Some of the cash has been clawed back, although about £20 million has not been recovered.

Russ McLean, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices Group, called for better communication between government departments to ensure payments are stopped promptly after death.

He added: “In these times of austerity I think it is scandalous that there are not better systems in place to identify and detect where former NHS workers have passed away.

“With all the cuts in the NHS it really is quite shocking that money is being wasted in this way.”