Cost of vet treatment petition for animal NHS

[Speakeasy]

Everyone is suffering from the cost of living crisis and it is hitting pet owners too, especially with the cost of vet treatment rising rapidly. There are two petitions running asking for an Animal NHS, one on the UK government site and one of the Welsh government site. People in Wales can sign both but everyone else can only sign the UK one.

Please consider signing and sharing the petitions because it might just help people to keep the pets they consider to be their family.

The UK petition is at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/635352
and reads:

Create an Animal NHS for pensioners, those on low incomes, and for emergenciesIntroduce an Animal NHS for the animals of pensioners, those on means tested benefits and for animals who present with emergencies. Creating a national service to meet the needs of these animals would allow veterinary charities to help a new range of clients who are struggling to make ends meet.
More details
No animal owner could be unaware of soaring veterinary costs. One of the most common reasons that the SHG sees for animal welfare prosecutions that is failure to seek veterinary advice, either at all, or quickly enough, even if the animal is booked in for when the next pay cheque arrives.
A recent survey found that nearly all UK vets that responded have seen animals during the last 12 months that should have been presented earlier. Financial problems were given as the main reason in 91% of cases.
We can and must do better.

The Welsh petition is at https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/245403
and reads:

Create an Animal NHSIntroduce an Animal NHS, if only for the animals of pensioners, those on means tested benefits and for animals who present with emergencies.
If private vets could access general government funding it would allow the veterinary charities to help a new range of clients who are struggling to make ends meet.
More details
No animal owner could be unaware of soaring veterinary costs. One of the most prolific reasons for animal welfare prosecutions that come into The SHG is failure to seek veterinary advice, either at all, or quickly enough, even when the animal is booked in for when the next pay cheque arrives. Nearly all vets have seen animals during the last 12 months that should have been presented earlier.
www.vettimes.co.uk/news/report-shows-growing-number-of-clients-delaying-treatment-for-their-pets/
Financial problems were given as the main reason in 91% of cases.
Times are hard and there are many calls on government finances but the proven benefits of animal companionship means that an Animal NHS would pay for itself many times over, if only by reducing demands on the courts and legal aid.
Wales can and must do better.

I've had cats for decades and currently have a rescue cat. I won't be signing because it's a terrible idea.

I initially misread that as 'human euthanasia' and was going to comment in support of the idea - I would much rather pop down the road to the vet than fly to Switzerland when the time comes.

@redebs Why on earth should the vet fund this?! How ridiculous. Should your mechanic pay for your broken down car and your local Tesco manager give you some food if you're hungry?

A new grad vet earns about £25k.

Many independent clinics are struggling to stay afloat. This is thanks to large companies taking over but also thanks to unpaid debts from owners who don't pay their bills.

Charities are in place for people who can't afford euthanasia for their pet.

@Speakeasy I think you've been sniffing an too much glue.

Also, @Speakeasy the Animal NHS is never going to exist so please stop claiming the name like it's an up and running scheme. It's annoying.

I do not agree with this either. Sorry.

Our 10 yr old dog had an operation to remove cancerous tumours last week. He is now recovering at home and back at the vets for a check up tomorrow. He is fully insured and the vets fees have been settled already by our insurer.

When we got him as a puppy, we researched pet insurance and have paid his premium every month since we bought him. The costs have risen as he has aged but we factored this in when we got him. We budgeted for the monthly cost to be 4 times what it actually was.

Locally, there are charities that offer free or discounted Vet treatments in certain situations and I think that is sufficient in times of hardship.

Pet ownership isn't a need, it's a want and if people are commiting to being a pet owner, they need to do their research and have things in place to provide medical care to the pet. I think that all pets should be insured as a legal requirement. Taxpayers are not responsible for making sure my dog got medical assistance. It's my job to make sure I can access it and the costs covered. The priority needs to be for the people to get medical care. At the minute the NHS and schools are on their knees, and making people pay for things when help is already available isn't the way to go.

No chance of me signing it either. If you have a pet, it's veterinary care costs are your responsibility. If anything, I think it makes pet owners more respectful of the NHS, as we understand what proper care costs.

I have always thought compulsory pet insurance should be law along with having your pet microchipped , we always take the insurance that covers being sued for any damage or god forbid bites , I don't fancy losing our home if we are sued .

Also, what level of veterinary care are you proposing? Eg - a nasty fractured leg- would it have the low cost treatment - amputation- or would it automatically have specialist orthopaedic treatment and potentially lengthy follow-up care?
Would everything have to be done properly or would corners have to be cut due to costs?

Are you kidding? There's barely an NHS dentist to be found so the idea vets could be covered is mad fantasy. What's next on the wishlist- free car servicing?

I'd be delighted if my vet fees all magically never existed but this is one of the most stupid ideas I've ever heard.

Whilst I sympathise with people who find themselves in difficult situations post pet acquisition, I'll be damned if I'm going to help fund some skanky chav's xl bully fund.

Yes completely insane. If you think it should cost 3 grand to treat cystitis human or animal your are insane or a vet.

ps. I was there I saw what he got for the money and all this stuff you have wheeled out to be quite condescending quite frankly didn’t happen. The care was poor it was medivet. Enough said:

Pet ownership is a luxury not a right.
OP are you suggesting that everyone is taxed more heavily to give others the ability to pay their vet bills? People are struggling enough as it is.
Pet insurance is the solution- a lifetime policy with a decent company.

Vets salaries max out at about 60-70k. Just google some adverts. New grads start on less than 30k
I’d love to know where all these rich vets are.

There is a huge risk of fraud here surely - for example I could 'sell' my dog to my parents (pensioners) but still keep her as my pet, then get parents to take the dog to the vet when ill. I don't even think all pensioners should get help like this - my parents have more disposable income than me! Should there be more restrictions on who should be able to buy animals instead? I totally understand circumstances change, but when someone buys a large breed dog while already on low income/benefits then whose fault is it when they can't feed the animal or take it to the vet? Pensioners also buy animals - why should we foot the bill when they knowingly brought pets in old age?

No.

I’m a firm no, but I do feel that pensioners and the unemployed are often the people who are more suitable for having pets as they’re not left alone all day.

I'm not a vet, no, and not insane at the moment as I'm taking my lithium every day, though I'm not sure my sanity or otherwise has much bearing on a difference of opinion about the reasonable cost of medical care.

I'm not sure why you think it's condescending to list a few of the expensive things that have to be paid for by someone in order for medical care to be safely delivered. To someone using the NHS, a lot of these things are invisible. Or even to people using private human healthcare. Even with private human healthcare, some of the costs of things like regulation and inspection are borne by the taxpayer, via public regulatory bodies, as a public good.

Since you didn't specify the exact services received in your initial post, all I had to go on was "My mum paid 3k recently for a cat that isn’t hers as she didn’t want to suffer it had cystitis! They rob us bind because it all usually gets swallowed by insurance so they charge insane amounts." There's no way for me to determine from this whether the cat had ambiguous symptoms requiring extensive investigations to rule out more serious problems, whether the cat was seen by out of hours services, if it needed to be kept in for observation, whether it needed nursing care, what kind of drugs it needed and by what delivery route… you posted as though £3k for cystitis was intrinsically unjustifiable, but I believe that £3k could well be justifiable in some cases, depending on what was done, by whom, and when. I didn't make a claim specifically about the exact scenario your mum paid for because you didn't give enough details to comment — what I was saying is that there can be situations where healthcare for something seemingly minor can get surprisingly expensive, and you can't just point at a high price and use that alone to prove that vets are scammers.

Yeah, maybe the company charged way over the odds for a routine ten-minute daytime appointment and a prescription. I'm aware this does happen, and it shouldn't. But reading your post was like reading someone complaining they bought a car and were charged £50,000, with no further details, and expecting everyone to agree that that's appalling, when it can be perfectly reasonable to charge £50k for a car. If you then come on later and explain that the car is a 1992 Fiesta with 120,000 miles on the clock and they didn't tell you it had a blown headgasket, then fair enough, they overcharged, but that doesn't mean £50k couldn't easily be justifiable for a car.

Approximately 10% of your vets bill is actual profit after ALL expenses are taken into account. Running a vets is an expensive business. This is not a made up figure.
The big online drug sellers can offer cheaper meds because of their sheer buying power. They can retail meds to the public for cheaper than the independent vets can buy at wholesale.

Then the independent vets should get together to form a buying co-operative. Business incompetence is no excuse.

I agree with this. I recently had to spend a lot of my cat, which ultimately ended in her death, fortunately she was insured.

If you can’t afford pet insurance then you can’t afford a pet.

I’m a dog owner and I absolutely don’t support this. It’s really not affordable and it would encourage people to by more pets.

I'm assuming the OP has a pet, no insurance and a big bill.

This post is utterly ridiculous and makes me really angry. We can barely afford to prop up the normal NHS without supporting people's pets. If you can't afford an animal you don't have one.

I get the point if the animal is related to a medical condition but not just because benefits Bertha just wants a dog.

Well that's enough internet for me today