What was claimed
A particular oximeter has been developed by Guys’ and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Our verdict
The Trust was not involved in developing the product.
Promotion for oximeter not endorsed by NHS hospital
25 July 2024
A video on Facebook promoting an oximeter falsely claims the product was developed by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London.
The video—which has been viewed at least 22,000 times—claims the device used for measuring blood oxygen saturation is the “latest” oximeter “developed by St. Thomas’ Hospital in London”. The NHS Trust’s logo is also displayed as a banner across the top of the clip.
However, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust confirmed to Full Fact that the information in the post is false and they haven’t developed the product shown in the video.
A spokesperson from the Trust said: “This is a fraudulent advert and we have been asking people to report it to Facebook/the social media platform it appears on.”
One of the Trust’s clinical scientists said that the device seemed to be one which measures oxygen saturation and heart rate, as opposed to blood glucose or blood pressure as the video claims.
We’ve contacted the company which seems to be promoting the product on the Facebook page and will update this article if we receive a response.
Health misinformation can cause direct damage to people’s physical or psychological health, and falsely associating medical technology with trusted bodies can encourage distrust of medical professionals.
If it spreads at scale, it can introduce confusion about the causes and treatments of illnesses, and distract from or undermine medical consensus and public health messaging.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because it falsely claims to be associated with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.