Healthwatch Exposes Scam NHS Appointments Website
- Details
- Published: Sunday, 06 October 2024 17:19
- Written by Guy Tuggle
- Hits: 866
Update: GDPUK would like to thank Krystal hosting for taking our report made to them about this site seriously, they have now suspended this website and we thank them for their help in protecting the public.
Healthwatch Trafford has issued a warning to patients about a website offering to make NHS dental appointments. The site uses similar colours to NHS branding and in return for upfront payment says it will find and make an appointment with an NHS or private dentist.
The site does not provide a phone number but gives a London address in NW10, and claims to have booked 35,000 appointments.
Users are invited to specify what kind of appointment they are seeking, for example checkup, emergency, hygienist, and select a location from a dropdown list of counties. A calendar of available dates and times appears for the user to choose from.
Clicking on the date and time that suits leads the user to a registration page and then to a payment cart which requests £35 for an NHS appointment or £120 for a private one. Irrespective of the choice the appointment is for an hour!.
No refunds are available as once payment has been received efforts will have been made to secure an appointment the site says.
An NHS Band One appointment costs £26.80 and NHS practices are forbidden from taking upfront payments.
The Healthwatch website says ’Patients may have seen a website advertising NHS dental services, using a logo very similar to the NHS logo and offering urgent treatment.
Please be aware that this is a scam and not a genuine service. Do not use this website to try and access NHS dental care.’
Cheshire and Merseyside NHS has flagged up similar advice. Its website says ’We understand that some patients seeking NHS dental care have booked and paid for appointments via this website and have been allocated what they have been told is an NHS dental appointment at a local dental practice.
Please be aware that NHS dentists will never ask you for advanced online payments on dental work. If you think you may have been affected, please contact your bank for urgent advice and support.’
GDPUK was tipped off about the website by a dentist who told us "Beware of scam website. Patients could be paying this site for appointments at YOUR surgery and turning up claiming they’ve already paid for a one hour visit with you!"
We have contacted Google to inform them of this fake site and asked the hosting company Krystal for comment.
Krystal now state that they are ’reviewing this case as a priority’.
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report