Fake Twitter accounts of NHS workers are being suspended as the Government denies claims of its involvement with the creation of the accounts.

A series of Twitter accounts have appeared online, using photos of existing NHS workers.

The suspended accounts are said to have shared propaganda-like posts in favour of the work achieved by the UK government and its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

One of the accounts, under the handle of @NHS_Susan, has been suspended as it misleadingly used a display image of a worker at Starfish Ward in Watford General Hospital.

The West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust were alerted about the accounts' presence and confirmed that the account misleadingly used an image of one of its staff members, which they had reported to Twitter.

Watford Observer:

Twitter were quick to take down the account, and several other similar accounts.

Anti far-right activist John O’Connell, who began a thread about the fake account, has suggested that these pro-government accounts were “set up” by the Department of Health and Social Care.

He says that his team is working on data analysis which will point toward his theory, but this data is yet to be published and his claims have not been verified.

Many users online have since retweeted his thread and shared support of his claims.

But the Department of Health and Social Care has alerted social media users that these claims are “categorically false”.

In a tweet they said: “To share disinformation of this kind undermines the national effort against coronavirus.

“Before anyone shares unsubstantiated claims online, use the SHARE checklist to help stop the spread of harmful content.”

A spokesperson from Twitter said: “Our specialist teams currently do not see evidence of large-scale coordinated platform manipulation surrounding the Covid-19 conversation, including suggested coordination associated with the UK Government.

“As is standard, we will remove any pockets of smaller coordinated attempts to distort or inorganically influence the conversation

“We are continuing to review and require the removal of Tweets that do not follow the Twitter rules — half of which we catch before they’re ever reported to us.

"If people see anything suspicious on our service, please report it to us. This is an evolving global conversation and we will remain vigilant.”