Scammers are “preying” on people who are desperate to secure an appointment with an NHS dentist, according to leading members of the profession.
People are falling victim to fake websites offering NHS dental appointments secured through a pre-payment system, the British Dental Association (BDA) said.
The organisation said scammers have targeted people in Essex, Devon, Merseyside, Norfolk and Suffolk, taking up to £319.10 for care.
Jacqui Nicholson, 62, from County Durham, fell for the scam after a two-year wait for an NHS dentist.
The website was promoted by someone she trusted on social media.
Mrs Nicholson paid £53 each for appointments for herself and her husband, and claims the website had an NHS logo, pre-payment options and detailed email confirmation.
She said: “It looked so real. I even Google Mapped it. It’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake. Don’t fall for it.”
BDA chairman Eddie Crouch called for “urgency” from the Government.
In the run-up to July’s general election, Labour made a manifesto commitment to create 700,000 new urgent and emergency dental appointments.
“Criminals are now preying on desperate patients left with no options,” Mr Crouch said.
“We need real urgency and ambition from Labour on NHS dentistry. Fraudsters will keep seeing real opportunities as long as the new Government’s promises remain unkept.”
The BDA wrote to Chancellor Rachel Reeves after the announcement in last week’s Budget that employers’ national insurance contributions will rise from April.
It said the change will “significantly add to the financial pressures” dental practices face, as the “overwhelming majority” are small businesses.
The BDA wrote: “Practices are running on empty, struggling to recruit or retain staff.
“The real reform this service desperately needs, and your party has promised, will need to go hand in hand with fair and sustainable funding.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Good Morning Britain: “I want to thank the British Dental Association for raising awareness of these kinds of scams, and we’ll be looking at what more we can do within the law to clamp down on that.
“They’ve done the public a real service this morning in giving some practical advice and help to avoid other people being taken in.
“But Eddie Crouch is also right that we need to stop the rot in NHS dentistry which has been allowed to continue for far too long.
“Eddie was just in the Department this week, with the British Dental Association meeting the Minister for Care.
“Now the Chancellor has set the budget and the spending review totals for the next few years, we can negotiate the dentistry contract to deliver on our manifesto commitment of 700,000 more urgent dentistry appointments, but also to do the wider fundamental reform that NHS dentistry needs. So we will continue those negotiations and report back.”
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