Outrageous Vet charges

sheramber

truthseeker25 said:

I do agree with both Emmia, although I do choose to insure.
However my insurance premiums will go up like everyone else's due to this sort of overcharging.
Also Undervalued, you may recall that although I found the consultation fee expensive, that is not what really concerned me - I acknowledged his experience and as a professional, as you say he is not really out of line with certainly solicitors, or Private GP's I accepted that element of his billing.

Interesting to consider, but if a solicitor did a land registry search for you that cost £50 would they charge you £200 for that search?? I think not, though unsure of that one.
Would a Private GP prescribe medication at a 3-400% mark up? I think not, but again usure.  
If they wouldn't then why should we accept such blatant overcharging from out vets?
Why would they even consider that 'fair and reasonable' 
It's good to hear from KxMx that an investigation is underway, but I think that is more about the monopoly of service in certain areas rather than overcharging - although the two are linked.

Do private GPs dispense medicines? 

My experience is they issue a private prescription, as your vet does, and you buy your medicine from a dispensing chemist at retail cost. 

Online pharmacies sell POM  at a cheaper cost than the high street chemist , the same as for your veterinary medicine  can be dispensed  cheaper. 

sheramber

Interesting to consider, but if a solicitor did a land registry search for you that cost £50 would they charge you £200 for that search?? I think not, though unsure of that one.

Who are you comparing him to?
 

Your vet didn’t charge you  £200. 

His long do you think a solicitor would spend  on a search for a fee of £50 if his hourly fee was £200? 

How long would he have spent reviewing the documents? 

truthseeker25

I think we have established that consultation fees are expensive, but commensurate with other 'professionals'
Of course I accept that they are businesses and have overheads and however much goodwill they may extend they do need to make some profit, that's what business is all about. This aspect of my post is not what concerns me most. 
Others here keep defending the overcharge of products, by saying the vets have to make a profit, and warn that buying the same product on Amazon is risky - 'it might be counterfeit' also warning me that Amazon cannot examine Xray, or offer a diagnosis. No that's what I'm paying the consultation fee for in the first place. 
The vet prescribed the products for our dog, I found the exact same product through Amazon from a Veterinary Medicines Directorate - Accredited  internet retailer scheme (AIRS) supplier. OK?
So my grievance remains why should I be expected to accept the vet making a 300/400% margin on these products. My vet when challenged to present his supplier invoice for the product demurred, (he had claimed the cost to him was greater than the Amazon price). He then took down my post!
As we have all agreed the vet is a business with overheads - I would expect him to put a margin on the supply of products 10 or perhaps 15%,  not 3-400% margins.  
Someone really needs to get behind this and shame vets who routinely do this, and praise those who have the honesty to suggest to clients that they could save by purchasing on-line, or who charge for product with reasonable margins. These are the vets that deserve our support and loyalty - as word gets around that they are fair, they will benefit. 
Really, can you trust someone who will, with a clear conscience, so blatantly overcharge to such a degree. 

Emmia

truthseeker25 said:

I think we have established that consultation fees are expensive, but commensurate with other 'professionals'
Of course I accept that they are businesses and have overheads and however much goodwill they may extend they do need to make some profit, that's what business is all about. This aspect of my post is not what concerns me most. 
Others here keep defending the overcharge of products, by saying the vets have to make a profit, and warn that buying the same product on Amazon is risky - 'it might be counterfeit' also warning me that Amazon cannot examine Xray, or offer a diagnosis. No that's what I'm paying the consultation fee for in the first place. 
The vet prescribed the products for our dog, I found the exact same product through Amazon from a Veterinary Medicines Directorate - Accredited  internet retailer scheme (AIRS) supplier. OK?
So my grievance remains why should I be expected to accept the vet making a 300/400% margin on these products. My vet when challenged to present his supplier invoice for the product demurred, (he had claimed the cost to him was greater than the Amazon price). He then took down my post!
As we have all agreed the vet is a business with overheads - I would expect him to put a margin on the supply of products 10 or perhaps 15%,  not 3-400% margins.  
Someone really needs to get behind this and shame vets who routinely do this, and praise those who have the honesty to suggest to clients that they could save by purchasing on-line, or who charge for product with reasonable margins. These are the vets that deserve our support and loyalty - as word gets around that they are fair, they will benefit. 
Really, can you trust someone who will, with a clear conscience, so blatantly overcharge to such a degree. 

Many things cost more than their cost price if you have them somewhere else. 

Pret charges £7 for a baguette sandwich which probably costs £1 to make including all ingredients, someone else drew the comparison with a tunnocks tea cake up thread at £1.25 in a cafe, a price which would buy a box of 6 (or most of a box of 6) in the supermarket.

Your vet is free to charge what they want for medicine bought from them, you can choose to shop elsewhere if you don't like it / think it's too expensive.

Pollycat

truthseeker25 said:

Thank you all for your comments. 
Surprisingly plenty of support for vets (from vets I think) 

Oh dear.
That old chestnut.

I wish I'd been paid by all the companies I've been accused of working for on numerous threads.
I wouldn't have to worry about any bills - not even from a vet.

Just because someone doesn't agree with the point you're making does not mean they are employed by the company/group you are complaining about.
It simply means they don't agree with you.

sheramber

Why should you pay more in the corner shop for a pint of milk than you would pay on the supermarket?

Do you ask the corner shop to see their invoice for buying it because you can buy it cheaper in Tesco  or Asda.

Independent vets can make their own decisions on price and discounts. 

Those who  are part of a cartel do not have that privilege. 

Reference to Amazon products is those who are sold by non registered pharmacies. 

Did you price your item on the pharmacy’s website. 

I bought an item from Pet Drugs online  last week.  It was cheaper on their website site than the same item, sold by them, on Amazon.

Why is it dearer on Amazon? 

Murphybear

Emmia said:

I think you're also considering it a rip off because the NHS doesn't really directly charge at the point of use, and prescription charges (if you pay them) are also fixed.

If you had to pay the actual cost of your doctor visits, regular medication, surgeries etc. then perhaps the vet charges would seem reasonable.

Edit: for example a private clinic offering menopause services charges £290 for a 45min Doctor Consultation or £190 for a nurse. (With up to two follow up emails)

More email is £30 per email 

Prescriptions are between £9 and £35 a month depending on what is prescribed - one example is a tube of cream which is  £80 for 50g

Blood tests are £35.- £159 depending on the test.

People will probably have proverbial kittens if they knew the actual cost of some meds that the NHS use.  

“A toddler with a rare inherited condition has become the first child to be treated by the NHS with a new life-saving gene therapy.

The one-off treatment, called Libmeldy, costs £2.875 million and is the most expensive medicine ever approved for the NHS.”

Source: BBC

This makes the cost of a prescription seem like peanuts 

PoGee

My elderly cat had an abscess on his face. He had a visit to an emergency vet and 3 visits to his usual vet. Treatment involved x-rays, antibiotics, examinations, kept all day for IV meds, cleaning out abscess. I had insurance and think the bill was £1500 of which I paid £300 as excesses and percentage contribution. Happy to pay that as he healed up pretty quickly.
What I had an issue with was - what the junior community vet said. It was clearly an abscess but because it didn't 'have a normal presentation ' (she said it was 'too hard to be an abscess'), I was told to prepare to put him down as it was 'probably cancer'. A cancer that showed 2 puncture wounds! He'd been in a cat fight.
He was in so much pain that it affected his breathing and heart rate. That, she said, was a sign of heart failure and recommended a cardiology appointment. I complained and told them to stop causing upset, to treat his abscess and to take it from there.
He's a healthy elderly cat, with a healthy heart/ lungs and no sign of cancer (wee guy had full body x-rays) 🐈😺

Grumpy_chap

sheramber said:

Interesting to consider, but if a solicitor did a land registry search for you that cost £50 would they charge you £200 for that search?? I think not, though unsure of that one.

Who are you comparing him to?
 

Your vet didn’t charge you  £200. 

His long do you think a solicitor would spend  on a search for a fee of £50 if his hourly fee was £200? 

How long would he have spent reviewing the documents? 

Solicitors typically charge for their time at the appropriate hourly rate plus disbursements. 
The land registry search fee of £50 will be itemised as a disbursement so you will pay that fee plus the cost of the time taken to request and obtain and review the search.

saajan_12

I don't think there's anything wrong with the hourly rate - its a well educated profession with significant training thereafter. Plus they don't necessarily get that rate 8 hours a day, as there's admin, follow ups and downtime between appointments to be ready for you. 

The price of selling items is just supply & demand, they have it there to pick up conveniently whereas Amazon might take a day but you're free to go shop elsewhere. If more people did, then they might lower prices. Hair dressers will also sell you overpriced products to take home, but you're free to shop around. 

The bit I don't agree with is the prescription charge - if you're already paying for the person's time and expertise in recommending a treatment plan, that should include writing it down, in the form of a prescription if relevant. If not, what have you gotten out of the appointment?