How we verify dentist availability
Three independent data sources, transparently documented.
1. NHS Directory of Healthcare Services (daily)
We sync every NHS-registered dental practice in England nightly from the official NHS Directory of Healthcare Services API (version 3). For each surgery we capture:
- Name, address, postcode, geo-coordinates
- Phone, email, website
- Accepting-new-patients flags for adults, children, urgent care, and referrals
- Opening hours and facilities (wheelchair access, parking, etc.)
- The "last updated" timestamp from NHS itself
NHS data is published by surgeries themselves via the NHS Profile Manager. We do not edit it.
2. Patient reports (live)
Anyone who has recently contacted a surgery can submit a report on its current availability. Reports include the date, patient type (adult or child), and an optional comment.
Once three independent reports agree on a status, the dentist's page is marked as "Verified by patients". A single report is shown but doesn't override the NHS data; three concurring reports do.
To prevent spam we hash visitor IPs (SHA-256) and use rate limiting per IP. We never publish the IP itself.
3. Manual verification (selective)
For the most-searched surgeries in each city we occasionally phone the practice to confirm status. Where we've done this, the report is tagged as "verified by phone".
What we don't do
- We don't guess. If we don't know, the badge says "Status unknown".
- We don't accept payment from surgeries to change their ranking.
- We don't store personally identifying information about visitors beyond what's needed to prevent abuse.
Data freshness
NHS sync runs once every 24 hours. Patient reports are live. The "Last verified" date on each dentist page shows the most recent of the two.