Veterinary prescription charges

bunsmum · 25 November 2008 at 8:34AM

We have an 11 year old dog who has had a heart condition for several years. It is at an advanced stage and requires 5 different medications. Our insurance is running out and we have been forced to go to an online pharmacy (petdrugsonline) to purchase her tablets because it was £100+ a month from the vet, but £35 from the site.

My problem is that we've just asked for a prescription to be written, and now that the free prescriptions rule has come to an end they are asking for £17 for the first item, and £8.81 for each subsequent item. Our total for writing a prescription is over £40!! Even worse, they are only writing a script for 3 months at a time, so £160 a year just for the bit of paper!! The practice manager (who decided on these fees) said they would "consider" writing a script for 6 months. Generous, eh?

I complained verbally to the practice manager who was completely unconcerned, and am about to follow it up in writing. Is there anyone else I can complain to? I'm thinking OFT, RCVS etc?

Note: I understand vets should be paid for their time, I'm not expecting them to work for free, but feel £40 is excessive.

I would change vets but the veterinary care is tremendous, it's just the fee for prescriptions that I grudge.

Any help appreciated!!

Hintza · 25 November 2008 at 10:08AM

Moan too much and they might withdraw their service.

I have been reading these threads on prescription charges for awhile and can't really make up my mind on how folk should react.

We are lucky in that our vets fees are quite cheap relative to what you can pay. So we just get all the drugs from him.

Liney_2 · 25 November 2008 at 10:14AM

have you asked at other local veterinary surgeries what their prescription charges are? It may be slightly cheaper elsewhere?
Otherwise see if they can precribe the drugs for an extended period on one prescription.
One of my dogs has permanent eye medication and it is still cheaper for me to not insure her and pay the vets fees myself (I do save what I would pay in insurance in a separate acct and I have 3 dogs and a cat so its quite a lot) so this works for me.
I am not advocating you do that though - just telling you that its what I do.
Good luck.

lowis · 25 November 2008 at 11:09AM

i would just talk to my vet nicely, and explain how expensive it seems but that you respect that he needs to make money on his time, but is there anyway he can compromise and issue a 6 month script instead of a 3 month? this way he still makes money and your dog still gets his meds at areasonable price.

snowman2_2 · 25 November 2008 at 1:11PM

Have you asked if they will match the internet price or even get close to it? I had a dog spending £200 a month on heart drugs (big dog!) but we looked around and found cheaper alternatives to our standard drugs (even if she had to get a full tub for 3 or 4 months supply) and then reduced the markup so we still made money but it was affordable. I am not going to do that for a £20 tub on tablets each month but for my bigger spenders I will always consider it. Can't always compete with the on-line pharmacies as they can often sell drugs cheaper than I can buy them.

bunsmum · 25 November 2008 at 4:38PM

Thanks for the replies

Liney - I was wondering if I should call a couple of places, just for comparison purposes. We would never leave our vet as the care is so great - but we do take issue with the charges, KWIM? The vets are brilliant so if I really must swallow this cost then I will, but hoping to get the practice manager to relook at the situation. It can't only be us who are unhappy with this!

Lowis - they did say they would consider doing that, which would definitely be a bit more palatable, although the specialist would have to agree (which I *think* he will).

Snowman2 - that's a great idea, but it's a large practice and I'm pretty sure the answer would be no. The Practice Manager was pretty unconcerned, she didn't seem able to see our point of view at all.

Thanks folks, if I make any progress I'll report back

orlao · 25 November 2008 at 7:19PM

bunsmum wrote: »

I complained verbally to the practice manager who was completely unconcerned, and am about to follow it up in writing. Is there anyone else I can complain to? I'm thinking OFT, RCVS etc?

Note: I understand vets should be paid for their time, I'm not expecting them to work for free, but feel £40 is excessive.

You can complain to RVCS and OFT as they are both monitoring the prescription charges as the rules say they should be fair and reasonable. AFAIK they will just take note at the moment rather than do anything. BTW that is the highest prescription charge I've heard of so far!

While you say that you do not want to change vets and I understand that, I would be inclined to look into doing so (particularly if you can keep the same specialist) as IMHO the only way that these practices will take note is if their greed costs them money!

bunsmum · 26 November 2008 at 8:14AM

Orlao - thanks. I know they took action in 2005 and are monitoring the situation, so I just wanted to let them know. I know they are supposedly monitoring complaints. I didn't mind the £15+vat, it was the additional charge for each item that I found excessive!! I decided not to write to the practice because I really can't bring myself to. We have such a good relationship with them and I have the utmost respect for the staff (practice manager excepted LOL) and the work they do. It makes me so uncomfortable to complain formally, especially when I already spoke to the practice manager over the phone.

The crunch will come next time we see the specialist. I'm assuming that the prescription charges are made because the vet isn't seeing the animal, but having to spend time checking notes etc so presumably it would be unfair to charge us to write a script if we're attending an appointment for a review of that condition at the time? We'll see.

Thanks for your help

simontheiceman · 26 November 2008 at 1:57PM

£40 is not fair and it is not reasonable - I have already made my comments to the OFT regarding this as I think that a "fair" fee should be set by the OFT and applied nationally. This will effectively deal with both sides of the argument (the script should never be "free" but neither should the client be ripped off for what is, at worst, 10minutes work). £40 can only see us going back to not being allowed to charge again ( the cynical among you will have already worked out that the more vets that charge a huge fee the more likely there will be a return to a ban on charging.). I have however also alluded elsewhere to the fact that any future ban will be met by a strong legal challenge (Its not just the client that has rights) and the government knows this and that is why it will actually seek a fair fee.

bunsmum · 26 November 2008 at 4:00PM

Absoloutely, simontheiceman. Very well put :T

I have no issue whatsoever with a reasonable fee - a vet should be paid for work same as anyone else. But if practices show that they are unable to determine a fair fee, then the government may need to step in and set a blanket fee for all. And I think that would ultimately be fairer for everyone.

The thing is, I don't have any choice really. My pet needs those medications to keep her alive so I either buy them at the vet prices (3 times the price of an online supplier) or pay a hefty prescription fee. Sure, I could change practice but I simply don't want to (on the actual care side of things, they are really second to none, it's just this decision I have real problems with).

OFT, here I come ... any suggestions as to a department or individual I should write to?

simontheiceman · 26 November 2008 at 7:40PM

bunsmum wrote: »

Absoloutely, simontheiceman. Very well put :T

I have no issue whatsoever with a reasonable fee - a vet should be paid for work same as anyone else. But if practices show that they are unable to determine a fair fee, then the government may need to step in and set a blanket fee for all. And I think that would ultimately be fairer for everyone.

The thing is, I don't have any choice really. My pet needs those medications to keep her alive so I either buy them at the vet prices (3 times the price of an online supplier) or pay a hefty prescription fee. Sure, I could change practice but I simply don't want to (on the actual care side of things, they are really second to none, it's just this decision I have real problems with).

OFT, here I come ... any suggestions as to a department or individual I should write to?

Yes its Bob McDowall:

[EMAIL="bob.macdowall@oft.gsi.gov.uk"]bob.macdowall@oft.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]
or call him on 020-7211-8574

He has already had an interview with the Royal College of Vet Surgeons and this was reported to all vets about a week ago so we have no excuse. Please do report this as it is pure greed - nothing else.

It would seem that you are paying dearly to keep your care with that practice - fact of the matter is you would hardly notice if they spread this cost over other fees e.g. consultation / injection / surgical. Thats what we did - reduced the cost of drugs and charged it somewhere else - this keeps our bottom line and no one fee gets out of hand.

I would not take this complaint to the RCVS - they are usually not that impressed to take on complaints about fees as they are more interested in professional conduct.

Veterinary prescription charges

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