It is believed that the health service may have been defrauded by up to €20 million in a single year, from ‘patients’ who obtained prescription drugs from a doctors and then resold them on the Asian and African markets.

The affair was discovered following an investigation into an ‘incomprehensible’ level of medical consultations by certain patients, and the drugs prescribed to them. At this stage, the links between all those involved has yet to be established.

Whilst the scandal seems to be based around Paris, the investigation involves no less than 20 départements in France, and over a 100 doctors.

The professional body for doctors has already stated that, if a doctor is found to have been an accomplice, then they face being struck off the medical register.

It is believed that in one case a fraudster obtained prescription drugs from no less than 40 different doctors, which they then purchased from 60 chemists.

In France, you are not obliged to register with a doctor in order to receive medical treatment. If you do not, you pay more for your treatment, but there is nothing to stop you seeing whomever you wish.

Perhaps the scandal could go some way to explaining why the French consume more per person on prescription drugs than any other country on the planet!