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Beware the vets who don't care
• OVER the past year we have had a miserable experience
with a veterinary practice.
After nearly a year of treatment our Border Collie was no better.
We had been billed for more than £5,000. Pills costing
£48 were found on a reputable pharmaceutical website for
£6.50. The vet not only refused to review the case, he
also asserted bullishly that he had done “a brilliant job”,
and was neither embarrassed or repentant at his lack of success,
nor was he tripping over himself to remedy the situation.
This letter isn’t really about us. We have spoken to a
great many people about the situation and have discovered that
our experiences are depressingly familiar.
The Royal Veterinary College isn’t interested and discourages
formal complaints – the vets of today and tomorrow do not
want their freedoms curtailed. It is a fact that the profession
is almost entirely unregulated, and that the machinery for doing
so is toothless, ineffective and entirely managed by vets.
This is a profession which dispenses medicines and performs
operations, and effectively possesses a license to print money
– everyone else is subject to controls – why should
vets be above all that, and effectively untouchable?
I’d like to pass on some advice:
1) The law requires a vet to give you a prescription if you
ask for it. In most cases this will be significantly cheaper.
There is no law to say your vet cannot charge you £100.00
for that which costs him £5.
2) Not all vets are alike. There are some good ones – find
one before your pet becomes ill, and don’t wait until the
animal is in pain, and you are distressed and short of time.
3) Ask the vet what they are doing and why, and insist they
reply in layman’s terms – our vet attempted to blind
us with science and suggested it was all too complicated for
us to understand.
4) Insurance is a necessity. Some companies offer up to £7,000
to cover a single condition and believe me, if you are unlucky,
you will need every penny.
5) Never lose sight of the fact that veterinary practices are
businesses, that this is effectively private medicine, not the
NHS, and they expect to be paid.
6) Some organisations such as the Blue Cross may be able to
help if you are unemployed or in financial difficulties.
7) If you have a problem with your vet write to the Royal Veterinary
College and let them know of your dissatisfaction. If they knew
just how often people feel ripped-off by their veterinary surgeons
things might change.
8) Don’t be afraid to change vets, even in the middle of
treatment.The best recommendations usually come from other pet
owners – the vet we are with now was strongly recommended
and has made more of a difference to our Border Collie in a
fortnight than the previous vet did in a year.
8) Finally keep an eye on your pet and it’s health yourself.
Anything that is out of the ordinary, write it in your diary
or on the calendar and try to work out why. Prevention is better
than cure.
And for anyone who thinks this has nothing to do with them I
suggest you would do well to think on the following: We will
all be facing situations like this if the NHS were to collapse.
Tarquin Kyle
Oppidans Road
NW3
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