5 hours ago
8
The Competition and Markets Authority report on vet chains is welcome, but your editorial (24 March) does little to clarify things for struggling pet owners. The remedies include a further levy of between £600 and £1,000 per year, to be paid by practices to the regulator. This represents an increase of approximately 5% in our small independent referral practice, and will necessarily lead to increased prices, which have been displayed on our website since opening. Reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 may lead to similar rising costs.
Current median salaries for veterinary surgeons are less than those of teachers and nurses. While pet owners may wish that care was cheaper, they also depend on it being available. Veterinary qualifications involve a minimum of five years’ undergraduate training, without the benefits of clinical years bursaries offered to doctors and dentists.
If society deems affordable veterinary care to be essential, it needs to support the sector, as many practices make profit margins more similar to pubs than corporations. Bills could instantly be reduced by 20% if the government removed VAT (which is not charged on private human medicine).
If society demands a public good, who should be the ones paying? Individual vets and nurses already contribute more than their fair share.
Dr James Hunt
Pet Pain Relief, Dulverton, Somerset
Your editorial on the veterinary sector rightly highlights concerns around pricing, transparency and corporate ownership. However, there is a risk that the focus on cost overlooks a more fundamental issue: whether appropriate care is available at all.
The proposed closure of Great Western Exotics in Swindon, a specialist referral hospital owned by IVC Evidensia and operated through Vets Now, illustrates this gap. Although the closure has now been delayed, services are already significantly reduced, with no new cases being accepted and work limited largely to emergencies – leaving referring vets and clients in an uncertain position.
Veterinary professionals have also raised concerns that referral services are already under considerable strain. There has been little clarity on how continuity of care, referral capacity or welfare considerations are being addressed during this period.
If reforms do not also consider specialist provision, training pathways and referral capacity, there is a real risk that access to care – particularly for more complex or less common species – will be further compromised.
Ruth Hemingway
Witney, Oxfordshire
The chief reason for the increase in the cost of getting your pet (or farm animals) treated is the takeover of small, independent vet surgeries by corporations. Of course, most pet owners will not know that their vet has changed owners because the names do not change. These companies should be required to change the name of the surgery so that pet owners can identify any remaining independent surgeries and get fair prices for treatment.
I changed surgeries about six years ago because the one I had been using for more than 20 years was bought up, and the service became more focused on making money than on treating my cat.
Tom Wilson
Professor emeritus, University of Sheffield
