Vet Fees

oldius said:
Since beginning this petition, I have been sent a lot of information and cases confirming that this issue runs deep. independent vet practices are being swallowed up by private equity companies and much larger firms. A large number are buying multiple surgeries within a small geographical area, thus taking away the prospect of competitive pricing. There is an article, this week, in the Sunday times, containing allegations about the control of pet drug supplies and, naturally, there are allegations about the involvement of the insurance companies. All simply says to me that there needs to be a regulatory body. Please sign and share the petition if you think this is an issue; I will be approaching my local MP, next week. Some people have already sent my petition to their MP as they have discovered concerns in their areas since the petition went live.

http://chng.it/wk6gfTJxjL
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Yesterday i moved from current vets back to my old family run one.
 
oldius said:
I was given a detailed breakdown but the vet told me directly that they are told what to charge by their owning company. She told me that an X-ray in Spain (her home country) was approximately £50. I was charged £920.

Since I shared this, the scale of the problem has really come to light. Some vets are so embarrassed by what their owning companies are charging that they are even willing to share prescription information so that clients can buy products independently. We are talking, in some cases, of £70 being charged for painkillers that are freely available for less than £5. Insurance companies are given information by the vets who make the claim and that claim then becomes an uninsured, pre-existing condition, so that owners continue to pay for less and less cover while vet fees soar.
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We live out in the countryside and our 3 surrounding vets set up a syndicate and all charged the same overinflated prices. I spent a £1000 just to be told my cat was stressed. The cheeky cunts then wanted to charge me best part of a £100 quid for some air fresheners that makes him less stressed. Scamming wankers, they didn’t have a clue what was up with him. He’s been fine pretty much ever since.

Like you say they medicine prices are a joke, the mark up is criminal. Much of what you get from the vet is what we have as humans so you can get it from boots for a fraction of the price. I think the trick is to see what the active ingredients are and google that shit for the human equivalent.
 
metalblue said:
We live out in the countryside and our 3 surrounding vets set up a syndicate and all charged the same overinflated prices. I spent a £1000 just to be told my cat was stressed. The cheeky cunts then wanted to charge me best part of a £100 quid for some air fresheners that makes him less stressed. Scamming wankers, they didn’t have a clue what was up with him. He’s been fine pretty much ever since.

Like you say they medicine prices are a joke, the mark up is criminal. Much of what you get from the vet is what we have as humans so you can get it from boots for a fraction of the price. I think the trick is to see what the active ingredients are and google that shit for the human equivalent.
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How can a cat be stressed?
 
I'll sign it but I'm not hopeful whatsoever of any change.

I fell out with my local vets in Feb of last year when one of my dogs developed aspirated pneumonia. High winds panicked him and he swallowed sick which went straight to his lungs. He spent just 18 hours in the vets before I practically begged them to put him down as he had brain damage by the time I saw him next morning.

They use 'Vets Now' for the night shift and 2 days later we got an itemised bill (down to the last tissue used) including the obligatory 'Admin' fee for sending the claim off to the insurers.

A few days later we got another bill off the vets themselves (for the day shift) which included their own fee for sending their portion of the bill of to the insurers. They at least included a hand written commiseration note which Vets Now didn't bother with.

Can't honestly remember the actual amounts now but it was circa £1,500 total split fairly evenly. The insurance discounted some items as being overpriced so we ended up paying a chunk of cash on top of the excess.

We use a different vets now that do not use 'Vets Now' as it just seems to be a money maker for both of them.
 
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