Vets Now - high fees!

[Hippykitty]

Sam was showing strange distressed symptoms on saturday night. I didn't want to go to vets now, who misdiagnosed Polly (she'd be dead if I'd taken their advice),  so rang round various vets to see who didn't use them. Found one who used a service in Solihull (miles away, when you don't drive). Contacted a driving friend and asked for a lift. She recommended a service near her, a permanent emergency vets: 'Northside Emergency Veterinary Clinic'. She was treated excellently, and the bill was only £87.50, much cheaper than the £130 plus I'd paid to Vets Now!

Unfortunately, the details of the visit get sent to a vet I'm not registered with. But I'm sure that if she'd needed to go back today, my vet could have contacted the vet I 'should' have been with to get details.

Will complain to my vet when next see him and tell him that I'd move practise if they weren't such good vets.

[Ela]

I don't think it's fair to tar all vets from a certain chain with the same brush.

I personally didn't as I also posted that one  particular vet who tended one of our cats a few nights previously was kind and caring.

[fluffybunny]

Although I completely agree on vets now pricing issues, I don't think it's fair to tar all vets from a certain chain with the same brush.  Personally I find it's the individual vet rather than the chain they happen to work for, to be the issue and have known great vets at those chains and terrible vets at independents.  Much to my disgust because it's in PAH, I now use companion care because after 'shopping around' I feel that Simone is the best vet I've found in Chelmsford.  If I wrote her off simply because she works for Companion Care (which I actually had for about a year previously) I wouldn't have such a good vet that I have so much confidence in.  Bit of a tangent I know, but I'm sure there are some absolutely great vets working for vets now, companion care, medivet and the like - although some of their prices might seem OTT it doesn't necessarily mean that all the vets have a bad attitude and aren't very good at their job. 

[Ralph's mum (angie)]

Thanks Angie 

[Angiew]

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/11453.html

for those of you that wish and have something to get off your chest 

[Ela]

but the vets were also quite rude

I don't want to fuel the fire by posting what Donna said about the vet and the nurse, all I will say is it was not complementary. Although when she went a few nights ago that particular vet was kind and caring.

[Ralph's mum (angie)]

I had to use Vets Now back in June for Bob not only are they extortionate but the vets were also quite rude and intimidating, pray I never have to use then again for Max

Hope kitty gets better Ela, poor thing xx

[Ela]

We look forward to another huge bill, late last night someone took a RTA to Donna, it was in a bad way but hopefully will recover. Once again she could not get through in spite of trying numerous times, in the end she just went in the van. 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Lets hope you get a helpful answer Angie, well done for writing. 

[Angiew]

my letter to Office of fair Trading earlier this week -

Hi,
I would like to make a complaint about the ‘Vets now’ surgeries that are springing up all over the country. They have about 30 surgeries in Urban areas and are utilising either PDSA premises or a vets surgery to provide out of hour/emergency vet treatment.

The problem is that in these areas, there is no choice but to use their services in the evenings/weekends as all the local vets are signing over their cover. As such they are free to charge what they want knowing that if your animal needs to be seen you have no choice. An initial consultation starts at £90. Any treatment and drugs are on top of that (and of course all carry an inflated charge).

There is also a concern that they are hospitalising animals that do not necessarily need hospitalising, as an example I took one of my cats to the surgery in Coventry last Friday. The cat had a temperature and was given drugs to bring this down and some antibiotics. A day time vet would then have sent the animal home (and charged about £40) but they decided to drip my cat and keep him on overnight and the next day the charge was £280.

 If you need to have an animal PTS then it will cost about £150 – I’m really concerned that this is going to lead to a lot of suffering or DIY euthanasia.

I have been worried about vets now for a couple of years now (working for a local cat rescue group) and have collected comments from several people across the country and heard many stories of expensive fees, unnecessary treatments and lack of continuity of treatment when the ‘vets now’ emergency cover ends and the normal vet cover begins.

 The RCVS states (on their website) that they

“WHAT THE COLLEGE CANNOT DO
……. Adjudicate on fees charged, except when the fees are so extreme that they might Constitute misconduct…..”

which means that they are not willing to interfere with fee setting.

Is there anything you can do to look into this or perhaps advise me how I can continue to oppose this?

Many thanks,

[coastalkitty]

Flippin 'eck (thats the polite version)!!  hmmm yes well I dont blame you for not using them.  I tend to visit all our local vets as each one seem to have a speciality, the ones that own the franchise to my local CAC practice are from S. Africa and really knowledgeable, their straight talking does put a few people off.    I just looked your one up, they seem to be back in the premises apparently, but.. use Vets Now for out of hours.  All our old practices seem to be selling out to large consortiums as they retire, and as they do, the new lot  go on to use Vets now!

Would Vets Now become classed as a monopoly, I cant think of what I want to say, brain fog, but.. if all vets go on to use Vets Now, we then have absolutely no choice but to pay what they ask  in emergency do we?

[Ela]

Companion Animal Care vets (the one within Pets At Home) in an emergency and found them really good.

The companion Care we had here (was flooded in June and not yet open) was not too good, at the moment they are working from the local RSPCA an I think all ops are going to Derby. The head vet even rang me once, told me what was wrong with a cat and asked if Cats Protection thought it should be PTS. I am afraid I cannot print my reply.

[Gail Bengal Slave]

We moan about the £36 a month Pet plan, but heaven forbid if we ever had to use it.

We had twice in the past had to claim £700 for Beau and £400 for Zaki Pooh I hope to heaven never again.

[Sabrina (Auferstehen)]

Not had to use Vets Now, but I believe at least one of the vets offices near us are always on call and will come in for emergancies.

When Little Girl had fatty liver problems the US vet stayed with her overnight and came in on her days off. They charged more than the average vets but they were a Cat only place.

Lady cried over the phone when she told me they had no choice but to put little girl to sleep as she was in such pain. Some are worth the price (though I had to take out a loan to cover all the costs).

[coastalkitty]

my regular vets when it was taken over by some consortium now use Vets Now as their out of hours service.    I have used Companion Animal Care vets (the one within Pets At Home) in an emergency and found them really good.  I wondered if anyone else used them?  Their opening hours are good till 7pm,  sat till 6 pm and sun till 4.30, their out of hours at my branch is still at the branch with the usual vets - call out starts at £69 , however I noted that some branches do use Vets Now as well, so its better to check your own branch opening hours and out of hours service to make sure.   I found them pretty good, but know people that wont use them because of the selling of animals in P@H.  Companion animal care is franchised btw.

[Gail Bengal Slave]

Yes no wonder many animals go untreated 

[Liz]

Just to add a thought or 2

We have got a 20% discount from our vet and from our previous vets and yes we have 37 animals registered with them and all get the best treatment

I got this with our original vet due to our cruelty case Brady nearly 5 years ago as the vets missed stitches that had ingrown in his front legs and they were so apologetic that they gac=ve us this discount when we moved house I visited quite a few vets till I found one I liked, weren't phased by our ferals and could give us a high quality service.

We also gave them complete records from our old vets for all the mob and I asked for the same discount I had previously and they said no problem as our vets fees are approx £400 a month for basics - injections, program, worming and the same for the 2 dogs it does save a bit of money and I would recommend our vets both current and previous.

Our new vets also do referrals for major stuff to our old vets practice and thats what swung it there way due to some of the rather large bills we had in 2004 and 2005 due to the accident prone kids!  Since we moved nothing major but its nice to have a comfort zone should anything happen like Puma's nice £1500 bill that cancelled Christmas 2005, he is fully recovered and no issues with his leg at all!

Also meant to add we always used this discount for any fosters we had before moving here and let our CP branch use our bill for things like Simicat for kittens as our discount was bigger than theirs!  We also covered all vets fees for fosters as they were in our care and it meant the branch could use the funds for other things

[aliwe13]

I think Vets Now are scandalous. My cat was admitted at 3.30pm on a Saturday afternoon and was collected and returned to my vets at 7am on Monday. The charge for his kidney treatment was nearly £600 and althougn I paid a deposit of £100, I was hassled to pay the full amount in several snotty letters. What they hadn't told us was that "They don't wait for insurance claims" , the owner has to pay up front and then be reimbursed. They know that they have you over a barrel because with a beloved sick cat who needs help, you'll pay anything to get them treatment.

[Ela]

I am sorry, I thought it very recently

[fluffybunny]

It was a few months ago now, sadly we had him put to sleep later the same day as blood tests showed both his liver and kidneys were failing   Even that cost £150 to find out as my practice at the time had recently been taken over by medivet!

[Ela]

I do hope Sooty  is OK please let us know.

[fluffybunny]

The morning Sooty collapsed I rang vets now who are also used by most practices round our way, they said it would be £104 initial consultation then anything else on top of that.  To be fair to them they did say I might as well wait until my own practice opened as by the time I got him there they would be starting to discharge the animals back to their own practices. 

[Ela]

pernhaps that explains the charity discount most vets seem to offer (of about 17.5%!!!)

I wish, we get 10%

[Ela]

mike that we should not be charged VAT

I think you have to get a VAT exemption form and pass it onto your vet. We get ours from CP HQ but I expect the VAT office would be able to supply you with one.

[Desley (booktigger)]

That is definitely worse than my out of hours vet - although they charge scandalous prices (thank god for pet insurance!!).

[Angiew]

this was one of my own Gill, but I might mention to mike that we should not be charged VAT - pernhaps that explains the charity discount most vets seem to offer (of about 17.5%!!!)

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Angies group is a charity too !

Why are they charging a fee for every different medication?

[Ela]

Which reminds me as a  Charity we should not pay VAT on medication. I will ask out HQ for a for to be sent to Vets Now.

[Angiew]

most of that is hospitalization charges - take the cats home!!!

out May 2006 Vets now charges list shows -
basic overnight - £24 for 16 hours
Average - £48 for 16 hours
intensive - £100 for 4 hours.

Puss got Intermediate on his bill (£44.53 + 7.80 vat)
The drip (he was 5% dehydrated) £67.57 + 11.82 VAT

In fact his itemized bill was
consultation (£23.19 + £4.06 vat)
OOH -before 11pm (£59.39+ £10.39 vat)
IV and first bag (£67.57 + £11.82 vat)
Vetergesic (£4.54 fee + £4.84 drug + £1.64 vat)
Zantac (£4.82fee +£3.34 drug+ £1.42 vat)
ceporex (£4.82 fee+ £0.29 drug + £0.89 vat)
metacam (£4.82 fee + £1.48 drug + £1.06 vat)
diazepam (£4.54 fee + £1.48 drug + £1.06 vat)
intermediate care (£44.53 + £7.80 vat)

total charge - £269.91p

[Ela]

oh by the way, when i was helping out that national charity in coventry the last couple of days, I was told that what they do now is tend to take the animal in and insist on pain relief/stabilization and nothing else and then go to the normal vet the next day.

And if they add a couple of stitches charge almost £400

[Angiew]

oh by the way, when i was helping out that national charity in coventry the last couple of days, I was told that what they do now is tend to take the animal in and insist on pain relief/stabilization and nothing else and then go to the normal vet the next day.
 As much as it galls me to go against professional advice, it sounds like a good idea! I have heard that they do tend to do a lot of hospitalisation (see my £280 for cat with temp last week!). I suppose if there are only 2 or 3 mugs a night that will pay your prices you have to get your takings up somehow!

[Ela]

Well I'm just about to send an email to Enquiries@oft.gsi.gov.uk

Lets hope some good will come of it.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Maybe also Monopolies commission and fair trading people 

[Angiew]

Well I'm just about to send an email to Enquiries@oft.gsi.gov.uk saying that I think they are abusing their position in the market place......

[Desley (booktigger)]

That is scandalous, and I agree with your comments that it shouldnt be much more as they use something that is open during the day. The one my vets use have a contract with about 10 vets in the area, so it isnt like they havent got a large base, and they have their own clients during the day too - at least it means they can stay as long as necessary, they dont have to be moved come the morning. Sadly, while all vets advertise 24 hour care, it does generally mean they use someone else.

[Ela]

I hope you've signed my petition!!

All I will say is officially that would be a problem, unofficially something may have been arranged months ago.

[Angiew]

I hope you've signed my petition!!

[Ela]

Oh well never mind, thought it was worth a shot

Quite right

[Corporal Smokey]

Oh well never mind, thought it was worth a shot 

[Ela]

w it's a little out of your area but Alfreton Park have an out of hours service and have always been reasonable.

One of our members is a vet nurse there. Vets won't usually just do emergency work when it is not their client or maybe a stray in their area.