Vivienne Clarke
A dental surgery in Tenerife has experienced an influx of bookings from Irish people seeking appointments only for them not to turn up.
Roberta Beccaris, receptionist at Clínica Dental Tenerife Sur in Santa Cruz, told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne that when people contacted them they sought an email confirming the appointment.
“In the past two weeks we have been getting a lot of bookings from Irish people, all the patients were requesting an email to confirm the appointment, which is new, and then they are not turning up.”
Ms Beccaris said they were receiving up to seven emails a day, most of them from younger people. Previously their Irish patients would have been older people, she said. “But now they are young and they clearly just want a holiday,” she said.
“Today we are expecting two Irish patients, but we don't know really if they'll turn up. Obviously, as they are not turning up, we now understand it is just an excuse for a holiday. They are taking appointments away from people who need them, who are in pain.”
Later on the programme a message was relayed from Ms Beccaris saying that in future they were going to demand payment upfront when bookings were made and that she had received a number of enquiries from Ireland since her earlier interview had aired.
