I Need Vet's Price List - prior to treatment
hardplace-rock-me
Posts: 14 Forumite
If you don't wish to read the full post, please scroll to the end for the question, thank you.
I'll keep this brief. My dog was taken to an out of hours (OOH) vet's practice (late one Saturday night) where she was hospitalised for 3 days. When admitted I was provided with a content form which included an estimate of costs of £600 - £800. There is a note under the estimate stating that if there were to be further costs I would be contacted as soon as practicable to obtain my consent to additional treatment and costs.
Despite my speaking to the vets on a daily basis after my dog's admission, I was not informed of the current costs until the following Monday morning, by which time the bill was at just over £2,000. My dog was discharged the next day and my bill was just short of £3,000!!
I have taken advice from Trading Standards and they suggest I use wording from The Consumer Rights Act 2015 in a complaint letter stating the bill is not reasonable and (this is what I would like some advice on) obtain a 'like for like' quote from another local OOH vet to compare with the bill I've received. It is THIS I'm having difficulties with.
The other OOH vet I approached initially led me to believe they could provide the prices that I needed, but later backed out of that verbal agreement and now say 'an aspect of the practice policy is that we are unable to give any costings of this sort until we see the animal for treatment' - basically I think they are reluctant to potentially 'tread on the toes' of another vet by providing me potential evidence that my OOH vet bill is over priced.
My dog has since had to be euthanized sadly, I only add this information to avoid anyone suggesting I take my dog to a different vets.
Question: Is a vet obligated to provide potential customers with a price list of their charges?
I'll keep this brief. My dog was taken to an out of hours (OOH) vet's practice (late one Saturday night) where she was hospitalised for 3 days. When admitted I was provided with a content form which included an estimate of costs of £600 - £800. There is a note under the estimate stating that if there were to be further costs I would be contacted as soon as practicable to obtain my consent to additional treatment and costs.
Despite my speaking to the vets on a daily basis after my dog's admission, I was not informed of the current costs until the following Monday morning, by which time the bill was at just over £2,000. My dog was discharged the next day and my bill was just short of £3,000!!
I have taken advice from Trading Standards and they suggest I use wording from The Consumer Rights Act 2015 in a complaint letter stating the bill is not reasonable and (this is what I would like some advice on) obtain a 'like for like' quote from another local OOH vet to compare with the bill I've received. It is THIS I'm having difficulties with.
The other OOH vet I approached initially led me to believe they could provide the prices that I needed, but later backed out of that verbal agreement and now say 'an aspect of the practice policy is that we are unable to give any costings of this sort until we see the animal for treatment' - basically I think they are reluctant to potentially 'tread on the toes' of another vet by providing me potential evidence that my OOH vet bill is over priced.
My dog has since had to be euthanized sadly, I only add this information to avoid anyone suggesting I take my dog to a different vets.
Question: Is a vet obligated to provide potential customers with a price list of their charges?
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Comments
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Sorry, you lost your dog.
But it is up to you to ask about costs.
I would not dream of not asking for an estimate from my vet. When I pay I get a receipt showing the cost of each item and treatment.0 -
Any vet treatment, espeically involving OOH's is not going to be cheap. Taking my cat to the OOH vets cost me £160 to walk through the door!
After treatment and 4 days at the local vets, It came to around £2000. Treating an animal isn't cheap.
Luckily I always take out insurance to cover these issues.0 -
donnac2558 wrote: »Sorry, you lost your dog.
But it is up to you to ask about costs.
I would not dream of not asking for an estimate from my vet. When I pay I get a receipt showing the cost of each item and treatment.
I didn't need to ask for an estimate as they provided one in the consent form I was given (£600 - £800) but they then let the bill get to £2,070 before they informed me of the increase in costs.
The real question I'm asking is, does a vet I'm not registered with have to provide me a price list if I ask for one?0 -
powerful_Rogue wrote: »Any vet treatment, espeically involving OOH's is not going to be cheap. Taking my cat to the OOH vets cost me £160 to walk through the door!
After treatment and 4 days at the local vets, It came to around £2000. Treating an animal isn't cheap.
Luckily I always take out insurance to cover these issues.
My dog was insured, the claim is pending, but I have a big excess (nearly £200) plus as she was an older dog I also have to pay 20% of the remaining balance after the excess is taken out.
I knew that OOH was going to cost more, at least for the consultation fee, that's a given, but to incur OOH surcharges for the daily/nightly stay fee, and more for xray and CT scans, is NOT something I was expecting, nor was I informed of until after the fact.0 -
hardplace-rock-me wrote: »I didn't need to ask for an estimate as they provided one in the consent form I was given (£600 - £800) but they then let the bill get to £2,070 before they informed me of the increase in costs.
The real question I'm asking is, does a vet I'm not registered with have to provide me a price list if I ask for one?[/QUOTE]
What makes you think they would have to?
Also, how did you manage to get advice out of trading standards? They don't deal directly with the public. What local authority was it? I'm curious - worked for TS many, many years ago.0 -
Why not post the breakdown of the bill on here and others that use vets can compare this to their costs?Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)0 -
Does the costs estimate show a break down of what the costs covered? Eg if it had a line of X for overnight care, you would expect that to be repeated each night?0
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hardplace-rock-me wrote: »There is a note under the estimate stating that if there were to be further costs I would be contacted as soon as practicable to obtain my consent to additional treatment and costs.
Sorry for your loss.
My guess is the estimate covered the OOH consultation and tests they would do until the morning, at that stage they would not know when your dog would be well enough to go home.
Were you contacted during the dogs stay? I can't image an animal being at the vets for 3 days with no contact.
When my cat was at the vet(Not OOH just day/night) I was contacted at every stage about what tests etc they were doing/ how the cat was. I asked at every phone call the cost
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I can understand form the vets point of view dealing with distraught owners they do not know how important/relevant costs are to that owner. Image the phone call "we need to xray your pet, this will cost £X is that OK" only to be shouted at and called heartless by the owner as money is no object its the pets recovery thats important. (not that all owners don't put that first just some of us need to know costs as well - the vet does not know our financial circumstances).
I suggest you ask for an itemised bill and take it from there.0 -
A vet would not be able to consider what treatment was appropriate and what the potential cost would be without actually treating the animal.
Vets often do have a price list for specific treatments such neutering but even that will state that is assuming to extra costs are involved. Any extra costs will be charged in addition.
What another vet charges is immaterial. Vet's are private businesses.There is no regulation on vet fees.
One garage will charge more than another, Harrods will charge more than Tesco.
One vet will charge more than another.
My vet charged £190 for neutering my dog. A friend's vet charges £165 for the same weight of dog.
Out of Hours vets are more expensive. They justify by saying this that they have extra costs for staff working anti social hours.
Staff have to be paid whether there are clients or not.
They do not have the routine treatments such as vaccinations, wormers etc to help towards daily costs.
Any treatment necessary during normal out of hours ( which would be all weekend) would cost more than the same treatment during the day.
A vet's costs are what they are.
It is standard practice among vets that they will not say anything about another vet.
However, you should have been given detailed invoice. If not, then you should ask for one.
What did you say when you were told the bill was £2000 on Monday?
Did you ask why the cost had escalated?
Was it for emergency treatment and Monday was the first chance they had to advise you?
What would you have done of they had contacted you and told you your dog need that treatment? Would you have agreed or would you have declined it?0 -
Manxman_in_exile wrote: »What makes you think they would have to?
I didn't think they had to - I was following the advice I was given.Manxman_in_exile wrote: »Also, how did you manage to get advice out of trading standards? They don't deal directly with the public. What local authority was it? I'm curious - worked for TS many, many years ago.
Well, I Googled 'trading standards' found their number, called them, navigated their phone menu and spoke to someone who advised me. Simple really
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