£12.50 Charge For Perscription From Vet

orlao

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

It's not so clear cut to compare two different practices and what they charge based simply on their location and close proximity to each other.

One practice may be run as a sole owner/partnership, employing just a couple of nurses and a receptionist. They may be using older equipment which is perfectly adequate for routine ops and refer anything more complicated to a specialist vet/hospital.

On the otherhand the practice down the road might be a 'state of the art' veterinary hospital employing a team of highly skilled surgeons and nursing staff. Who do you think is going to charge more?

We are fortunate enough to be able to choose which practices we use and some people may well base that on cost alone whilst others might prefer to use a practice with more facilities and expertise on hand.

That is your choice obviously and is absolutely fine, but what I do object to is the manner in which some people are slating vets/practices for having higher charges than a neighbouring practice and also accusing them of "ripping us off" whilst not making an informed judgement or indicating the types of practices they are comparing.

You cannot compare apples with oranges

I happen to agree with you but the practice I use has 3 vets, one of whom is the owner, a receiptionist (his wife) 1 qualified vet nurse and a trainee VN...anything other than nuetering, teeth, xray type stuff is referred elsewhere....no out of hours service...they out sourced that to Medivet.

A few miles down the road is a large practice including a hospital and various "remote" surgeries, in house out of hours cover which is where I originally went when I moved to this area and at the time their prices were a lot higher than anybody elses but what appears to have happened is that some of the other practices have matched their prices without matching their skills or facilities.

Something wrong there, isn't there

So I am comparing apples with oranges but they're costing the same!
As I've said before I will be moving vets,( once the fab vet leaves) probably back to the big practice and the main reason will be for in house out of hours care as I had a truly horrific experience at Medivet....but that's another thread.

stirlo_2

just to let y'all know that if you live in the Birmingham area, (or near our YourVets practice in rayleigh in essex), we offer repeat prescriptions at £5 in our 5 well-equipped Pet Vaccination Clinics. We also endeavour to match prices from online pharmacies, and we offer a next day pharmacy delivery service for long term medication!

missbargain

Yes, that is something I often notice, some businesses (not just vets) just match each other's prices. They think, "hey, he is charging £50 per hour or whatever, I'll do the same". I guess they could get away with it in boom times, I am sure that that is bound to change now.

stirlo_2

thats true missbargain, for too long, many vets have been running what amounts to cartels in many areas, fixing prices amongst themselves! Our business is making a concerted effort to change all that and ensure that caring for your pet is affordable to everyone! :cool:

DKLS

lowis wrote: »

Considering the running costs of a surgery, and the time taken to qualify as well as the on going training. I think the vet bills I have paid are more than reasonable, especially when compared to my day rate.

i have no problem with vet bills if they are justified (modern surgery, caring and thorough staff etc), what i have a problem with is the few greedy vets who play on people's emotions. how can one vet charge £575 and another vet charge £300 for the same operation, whne their surgeries are just a mile apart?

Can you clarify the term "greedy" I hear this term a lot on here by the anti success brigade. Could it be:
Vet A has higher running costs, perhaps he pays higher than average rates of pay for the staff or has recently invested in some new kit.
Vet B has lower running costs, or has much more experience in that particular procedure so can perform the task quicker and more efficiently.

How many other careers do you have to study for the rest of your working life?

quite a few of the 'professions' require ongoing Career Development throughout that professional working life...such as Architects...who, like vets, aren't that greatly paid considering their responsibilities and training. Only the 'starchitects' in each practice really rake money in.

Perhaps but like for like the volume of new data released and updates to best practice is a lot more frequent in veterinary medicine.

And after all they are they are running a business, and unfortunately for Vets their customer base are prone to being very emotional about their pets.

IMO opinion if you cannot afford the vets services when required, should you really have a pet.

and this is why pet insurance is a god-send and an absolute necessity if you own a pet. yes i can afford all the routine stuff but i could never afford the thousands regularly charged for a procedure. also, when my cats get ill i can be confident that my vet will do everything he possibly can to help them, as he knows they are insured he can throw the best procedures their way (i hate to think what sort of decisions he and i would have to make if they weren't insured).

Insurance is a god send and should be compulsary in my view, People may be lucky and find altruistic vets, but most have mortgages to pay just like the rest of us and cannot afford to be altruistic. I got good rates from my vet, as I built and maintained his website/shop for him.

missbargain

Stirlo

It would be nice to have more people like you around.

But I honestly believe, as I see it already happen in the area where I live, that those businesses that took advantage off and rode on boom times are closing down at an increadible rate. Reasonably priced, good service/care establishments have nothing to worry about.

Incidentally, I just got the quote from my local (10 houses away from me) plumber to replace my boiler. The quote is 4000 pounds. Not in my wildest dreams I am going to pay him that price, when I full well know that there is a plumber out there that will do exactly the same job for me, with the same boiler, for 2800-3000 pounds.
And my local plumber never, ever untill now offered any kind of "neighbourhood discount", or anything, even though we have used them on several occasions in the past. It is not that I NEED a discount because I am poor or something, it just makes you feel that they appreciate your business and want to keep their next door neighbour happy and loyal. It is all about the gesture. They charge 45 pounds per half hour work + VAT. They even charge the same call out fee, just to turn on my doorstep to give me a quote, even though I am 1 minute away. And they are by no stretch of imagination the best plumbers out there.

Me and my hubby run our own business and our whole street, plus the businesses located in it automatically get a discount, plus a freebie if they place order on a Friday. Knock wood, the business is still doing well, but we offer better quality and quantity at lower prices than our closest competitor. We did a thorough market research before we started. Yes, the profits are smaller, but the volume and turnover are higher.

I in no way belong to the anti success brigade. I have no mortgage and debt and live a comfortable life in a beautiful part of London. I have been pretty successful in my life up to now. But perhaps, having previously worked in the City for a long time before I decided to start my own business (and take a huge pay cut), I witnessed greed and avarice that is beyond comprehension. You may ask why I am on this site if I am not hard up? Because I genuinelly like the advice one can get about pets, recipes, old style housekeeping and also I, like many others, like to get a good value stuff, and there are some great suggestions here. Also, I can offer some good advice, I believe, in certain areas of life. And I just love to read peoples' posts, there is so much ingenuity here.

So I expect something from my local vet, not just the huge bill. They are not even open after hours or saturday afternoon or Sunday, and if they don't show that they appreciate my pet and my business, I am certainly not going to support them. Vets are not immunised from being greedy, there are different people among them like everywhere else, and those are a total rip off.

MrsE_2

missbargain wrote: »

You may ask why I am on this site if I am not hard up? Because I genuinelly like the advice one can get about pets, recipes, old style housekeeping and also I, like many others, like to get a good value stuff, and there are some great suggestions here. Also, I can offer some good advice, I believe, in certain areas of life. And I just love to read peoples' posts, there is so much ingenuity here.

I am not "hard up" either, I think most of the people on MSE aren't.

We are just canny consumers who want the most bang for our buck:beer:

I too love the advice, its like a giant network of knowledgable friends:D

Great post BTW;)

missbargain

Exactly, MrsE, thank you.

No matter whether someone is struggling or not today, everyone likes a good deal, or sometimes a bargain - why not, even if they are not actively looking for it.

None of us are looking for "bargain" or "altruistic" vets, they have to make a living, too. Most of us would pay for our pets care even before we would pay for ourselves, they are like our children to us. If anyone was complaining here, it was complaining about unjustified prices and bad attitude, not about not getting vet care for free.

In some posts, it got misconstructed and turned around.

orlao

stirlo wrote: »

just to let y'all know that if you live in the Birmingham area, (or near our YourVets practice in rayleigh in essex), we offer repeat prescriptions at £5 in our 5 well-equipped Pet Vaccination Clinics. We also endeavour to match prices from online pharmacies, and we offer a next day pharmacy delivery service for long term medication!

I'm near Rayleigh and I've just had a look at your pricelist and I'm very pleasantly suprised:beer: Put it this way, a price difference of over £10 a consultation and literally half the price for vaccs. Although I remember seeing the advertising when it opened I forgot all about it:o probably because at the time the dog was having his ops and because there were some minor(ish) problems there is no way I would have changed vets then due to needing continuity of care. But I'll certainly give them a go......once I check out who provides the out of hours service:eek:

lowis

Do I think this should apply to children? A atd different, dont you think..kids get NHS etc, animals dont.

no, i don't think it is that different really - NHS aside. if you can't afford to do something, don't go ahead and do it and expect someone else to pay for it (i.e. benefit system)