It shouldn't happen at a vets.

simontheiceman

I find that "investigative journalism" merely acts to reinforce misguided preconceptions. As such, it will not alter the views or opinions of those who seek to find fault with Vet practice. As it is Medivet who cop for the attention this time, I would think it follows hard on the heels of a very recent and very public humiliation of one of the partners in the practice. They are a very large chain, and I believe that London is unfortunately very dominated by chain practices. This is to the detriment of pet owners who will find it ever harder to find good quality small business practitioners. They are priced out of starting up by the sheer cost. The chains succeed by being large and having access to more funding. The majority of us struggle to make what could be described as a "good" living and this gets worse during times of recession. I'm not skint but my income does not even come close to that of my GP or my dentist. Hopefully I will be free of this profession fairly soon; it simply isn't worth the hassle. Anyone want to buy a practice?

carah

i work in a vets, been there the last 10 years, i hope people dont think that all vets act this way, every animal we see is treated like our own, with care, love and compassion, even sharing our lunch, i have been known to curl up in a dog bed with a animal while it is recovering, driving to shop to buy chicken to temp the frail patients, popping to elderly clients houses to administer daily meds, and collect patients that cannot get to us (all out of our individual working hours), if a animal is coming to its final days, it affects us all, our whole surgery have all been there over 10 years, there pets are our pets, ... however big or small, so please don not judge all vets by this program..

Mrs_pbradley936

simontheiceman wrote: »

I find that "investigative journalism" merely acts to reinforce misguided preconceptions. As such, it will not alter the views or opinions of those who seek to find fault with Vet practice. As it is Medivet who cop for the attention this time, I would think it follows hard on the heels of a very recent and very public humiliation of one of the partners in the practice. They are a very large chain, and I believe that London is unfortunately very dominated by chain practices. This is to the detriment of pet owners who will find it ever harder to find good quality small business practitioners. They are priced out of starting up by the sheer cost. The chains succeed by being large and having access to more funding. The majority of us struggle to make what could be described as a "good" living and this gets worse during times of recession. I'm not skint but my income does not even come close to that of my GP or my dentist. Hopefully I will be free of this profession fairly soon; it simply isn't worth the hassle. Anyone want to buy a practice?

No but I just clicked the link and explored Medivet's site. They would like to go into partnership with you!

simontheiceman

Mrs_pbradley936 wrote: »

No but I just clicked the link and explored Medivet's site. They would like to go into partnership with you!

Lol!

They would indeed - that is the corporate system for you! I worry a lot about corporates. As I see it, they have created a system of which I do not approve. I prefer the small business approach - its more personal. T

Anyway - for those who want the background on WHY Medivet...

http://www.rcvs.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/rcvs/6D0E23EF-57FA-4A2C-A411-C2FF701008A4_Segev-Findingsoffact.pdf

Its not a read with a lot of funneh so...

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Does anyone know any good vets? My cat is not so good just now and she needs yet another blood test - Its 'almost' funny being on the other side of the fence so to speak....

mrcol1000

The problem is that if you followed any person in their job and had an "expert" trying to find fault your be able to find out a lot of stuff that you people shouldn't be doing. I am sure if a secert camera followed some BBC employees at work and then took everything out of context it would be shocking viewing. This is tosh.

walwin

mrcol1000 wrote: »

The problem is that if you followed any person in their job and had an "expert" trying to find fault your be able to find out a lot of stuff that you people shouldn't be doing. I am sure if a secert camera followed some BBC employees at work and then took everything out of context it would be shocking viewing. This is tosh.

How can you call it tosh when you haven't seen it yet?

Hardly an informed opinion............

Mutter_2

Covered today by Daily Mail online. I couldn't continue reading it, let alone watch it.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1296672/Medivet-undercover-investigation-sick-animals-abused-pet-owners-ripped-trainees-carry-life-death-procedures.html

cyberbob

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

I havent seen the documentary, but I see it is about a chain of vets - I expect, as in many businesses, that small practices owned and run by the same practitioners for years have more of a vested interest in developing a good reputation than a practice run by employees who have no long term investment in the business and who may well move on after a year or two.

Does anyone know what chain it is?

I actually disagree with you here. In the past 10 years I have had to move a few times due to work commitments. The best vet we had in all those moves was a vet from a chain. The service was impeccable. They kept the costs reasonable (unlike a lot of individual practices). One of my cats had to have a leg amputated and the care and attention was second to none and of the highest quality,

The sole practice vets I have been with have been very variable. The one I am with now is OK but I don't have huge faith in them or the costs they seem to charge. I cant go to another one as the nearest other vet is 40 miles away (i live in a very remote area)

I think that some chains the standards are higher as they have monitoring from outside the practice where as some individual practices are very insular and don't have there practices challenged or reviewed from an outside source.

We are hopefully moving in the next year and I know if I am near a chain vet I will more than likely go there.

As with all industries there is good and bad. Documentaries like this go out with an agenda to prove a point. I very much doubt they will balance it up with the good service and care that the majority of vets give be they in a Chain or individual practices.

mrcol1000

walwin wrote: »

How can you call it tosh when you haven't seen it yet?

Hardly an informed opinion............

Because these programs are all the same. Follow someone secertly for 6 months. Spread that footage over 30mins or an hour repeating a few events out of context then get an "expert" to watch the footage explaining what is going wrong. It gets lots of publicity and horrfied people commenting on it. The organsation involved sues and wins and the BBC admits it made a mistake and some footage was taken out of context but by the time that happens its all been forgoteen about and no-one really cares anymore.
The thing is I don't blame the BBC for doing this as an hour of 6 months of pets being well looked after and correct bills being issued would not get that many viewers.

walwin

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Because these programs are all the same. Follow someone secertly for 6 months. Spread that footage over 30mins or an hour repeating a few events out of context then get an "expert" to watch the footage explaining what is going wrong. It gets lots of publicity and horrfied people commenting on it. The organsation involved sues and wins and the BBC admits it made a mistake and some footage was taken out of context but by the time that happens its all been forgoteen about and no-one really cares anymore.
The thing is I don't blame the BBC for doing this as an hour of 6 months of pets being well looked after and correct bills being issued would not get that many viewers.

A post full of sweeping statements by someone who has not yet seen the programme.

I repeat what I said earlier: hardly an informed opinion