The British Dental Association (BDA) has said the government must step up and honour its pledges to save NHS dentistry, as evidence shows scammers are targeting patients across the country desperate to access care.

A report on Good Morning Britain heard from Jacqui Nicholson from County Durham, who was desperate for an NHS dentist after a two-year wait. She fell victim to a scam she found on a website promoted by someone she trusted on social media.

Jacqui paid £53 each for appointments for herself and her husband, reassured by the NHS logo, pre-payment option, and a detailed email confirmation. When she discovered it was a scam, Jacqui contacted her bank but feared her refund claim might come too late.

Jacqui 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.”

The BDA understands fraudsters have already targeted patients in Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk, Devon and Merseyside using professional-looking websites to secure pre-payments of up to £319.10 for care.

The professional body has welcomed the government’s constructive tone. However, it has stressed that urgency and ambition are now required to deliver on pledges to reform the contract, which it says is fuelling the workforce issues and access crises.

Ara Darzi’s independent review of the NHS observed, "If dentistry is to continue as a core NHS service, urgent action is needed to develop a contract that balances activity and prevention, is attractive to dentists and rewards those dentists who practice in less served areas.”

The BDA has expressed concern that pledges to provide new funding for 700,000 urgent care appointments appear to have been dropped in the recent budget. It has warned that practices need support to cover significant new overheads generated.

Eddie Crouch, chair of the BDA, said, “Criminals are now preying on desperate patients left with no options.

“We need real urgency and ambition from Labour on NHS dentistry. Fraudsters will keep seeing real opportunities as long as the government’s promises remain unkept.”

Wes Streeting, health secretary, said on 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.

“But Eddie is also right that we need to stop the rot in NHS dentistry, which has been allowed to continue for far too long.

“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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