FAILURE to invest in NHS oral healthcare has led to scammers “preying” on vulnerable patients, desperate to secure an appointment with an NHS dentist, campaigners and experts have said.

Fraudsters have taken up to £319.10 using fake websites offering NHS dental appointments secured through a pre-payment system, The British Dental Association (BDA) said today.

BDA chairman Eddie Crouch called for “urgency” from the government.

The association 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.

Mark Jones of the Toothless in England campaign group told the Star: “These scammers wouldn’t see this as a viable fraud operation if successive governments had chosen to invest in NHS oral healthcare instead of defunding the system and forcing dental practices to sign unworkable contracts that have resulted in closures or the withdrawal of NHS services.

“They would also have taken the time to address the predicament of vulnerable patients and desperate families who are unable to access even the most basic locally provided NHS dental care.

“In order to meet the urgent requirements of the nation, we once more urge the Department of Health and Social Care to declare a dental emergency.

“Maybe the government has forgotten that it came into power on the back of a promised Dentistry Rescue Plan to ‘tackle the immediate crisis’ by providing 700,000 more urgent dental appointments.

“Where on Earth is it?”

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 said 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.”

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.”