24/06/2025
Thank you BBC News for this utterly guilt-tripping headline. I hope you come to realise the distress statements like this cause my colleagues and I.
There absolutely are questions to be asked about the level of corporate ownership of veterinary clinics and other allied businesses and how that is reflected in fees and profits and I have not spoken to a single vet who doesn’t welcome the CMA’s investigation into it all.
However, it is not fair to lay statements like this at the door of the hardworking and caring people on the ground.
The vast majority of whom have absolutely no influence over the amounts charged and who will regularly go out of their way to find solutions that ensure pets receive treatment in a way that is also affordable for owners .
It is true that costs have risen in recent years but so has everything else! The amounts needed to run a practice and keep the doors open are eye-watering.
And wages, traditionally not high in vet med have also gone up, which means the highly trained and absolutely dedicated people who care for your pets are being more fairly remunerated than ever before. But we are certainly not overpaid!
Added to which, the level of care we give these days has hugely improved in comparison to how it was.
For example, not so long ago when your pet was having surgery, they would be watched over by an assistant(often not even qualified) with just a stethoscope. Now it is unusual for anyone other than a trained veterinary nurse to be in charge and we have equipment that monitors all sorts of important parameters, including blood pressure, heart trace, oxygen levels and more.
This means surgeries are safer than they ever were and I don’t think many pet owners would opt out of this level of care if they knew the details.
The same goes for most areas of veterinary medicine; dentistry, long term illness management, pain control, behavioural understanding, diagnostic capabilities are all streets ahead in recent years and, again, I think this is what owners want for their pets, particularly when it is explained to them.
Not to mention that there are few veterinary professionals that would wish to practice without these modern interventions, they want the best for your animals just like you do.
But all these things come at a cost and we all recognise that those costs can sometimes be challenging for pet owners to meet.
That doesn’t make it of tbe fault of the vet staff, nor is it their responsibility to find a solution, but most of the time we will try.
If you are worried about affording to care for your pets, please talk to us about it. You will not be judged and we will do our best to help you.
But headlines like this really do have to stop.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9xjmz70m5o.amp
