Doctors in Sicily have been claiming state health benefits for some 51,000 patients who have remained on their lists despite being dead, media reported Sunday.

An investigation cited in Italian papers by Italy`s financial police found that some 51,287 deceased patients, some of whom had been dead for up to 20 years, still featured on the lists.

The results of the investigation so far indicate that dead patients have cost Italy`s public health service at least 14 million euros (18 million dollars), but the costs could be higher since the probe is continuing.

Sicilian doctors receive around 38 euros (48 dollars) of benefit payments for each patient per year.

The results of the nine-month investigation into regional health services have been handed over to prosecutors, who have not yet opened a case on the matter.

Current rules on who should report a patient`s death are vague and it is unclear weather the responsibility lies with the region, local authorities, individual doctors or the health service, Italian news agency ANSA said.

`It is one of the many failings of our system. Many cases border on being in breach of the law but they are also the result of poor organisation,` said regional health official Massimo Russo.

Russo said doctors could be unaware of the death of a patient if it had not been reported to them. He added that local authorities, `deliberately or undeliberately`, were often slow to inform the relevant services about a patient`s death.

He said it was up to the courts to decide weather or not the investigation`s findings amounted to deliberate fraud.