Fitzpatrick referrals

[Justwingingit2005]

So, watching superset tonight (had a cry when a cat died).
Got me thinking how much are these ops?
My loc vet charges £400 for a blood test!

One thing that struck me on one of his early series, is that he is such a a workaholic, that he often does none emergency surgery during the night. After presumably working most of the day. I would not want my precious pets operated on by a man who can't possibly be performing at his best at 2am. Not that he'd be going anywhere near mine anyway.

I have a couple of vet friends and they really don't like him.
Some of the things he does are really beyond what is fair on the animal and in some cases I really think he does prolong suffering unecessarily - no idea if its for the cameras, money or ego.
Our own vet is incredibly compassionate but always keeps it professional, I don't need my vet crying as well when I am upset!

I watched last night and was quite disturbed by that poor cat (I'm a cat owner). I'm not sure he should have attempted that, but it was a young cat and the owner wanted to, so...

I thought the Boston terrier was a perfect example of 'owners wanting the best' when the best is probably not necessary. The first option he offered, a simple 'false joint', would have been good enough. My vet did that for my cat after a RTA 25 years ago. My cat had a slight limp, but he was fine ever after. But owners don't go to Noel if they want that simple type of surgery - it really is all driven by the owners. I wondered how much that was costing, it could not possibly be covered by insurance as it would exceed the covered amount.

I thought he did a great job for the Vizler though. That poor animal.

We have been to an orthopaedics referral centre for our cat - not Noel. We went for diagnostics, and no treatment was subsequently required, so it was day case and not £££. I wouldn't put a cat through lengthy inpatient treatment.

He is not well liked in the veterinary profession put it that way.

His surgeries will easily run in to tens of thousands. I doubt even the basics come in much under £10k

No. That's based on evidence that surgical recovery is quicker and complications less when it's performed when the patient is in their natural sleep cycle. They covered this in an earlier series, or perhaps it was on the episode of A Life Scientific that he appeared on. A 30/60-minute program doesn't waste time showing his rest periods and preparation for surgical shifts.

For all I criticize the appropriateness of many of his interventions, he has done some pioneering work on improving surgical success rates. What he does is sound from the perspective of science and engineering, it's the ethics where he's on shaky ground.

I think part of the problem is that they show the more interesting and novel surgery he does, their bread and butter will be more run of the mill stuff but we've seen it all before. So inevitably you see pioneering things, some of which fail, and all of which are extremely expensive. I don't understand who can afford it, given the insurance surely only pays a proportion of it.

I agree about him crying though. If he had cried 'in sympathy' afterwards it would be understandable, but to start a phone call when already crying means the owner is comforting him, really not on.

I'm not a fan. He broke my friend's dog's spine during a 'groundbreaking' surgery, left her far worse off (she ended up havng to be put to sleep), and treated my friend appallingly throughout. Apparently he can be a very different person when there isn't a camera around.

@MamTDM I'm sure I read somewhere what he's horrible to his staff.