Handling fee for medication

[longtompot]

I've just seen a post on Facebook from the vets our cat is at, Vets for Pets, saying they will now be charging a handling fee of £12.14 on top of medication charges from now on. Anyone else have this at their vets practise, especially the same chain? It just seems a lot on top of medication charges, which are already much higher than other places, even including buying a prescription to buy elsewhere. Our cat is on the compact pills of Gabapentin for arthritis which we can't get elsewhere, so we can't really go to anyone else.

I'm with an independent vet, and there are no charges for handling medication. I would change vets if they tried to bring in a charge like that.

@Gingerkittykat The problem is the independent vet we would like to be with doesn't dispense this version of Gabapentin otherwise we would have moved already. We've already gone to the indie vet for blood tests as were quoted £250 plus extra if others were done whereas the indie was £68 all in, and said she didn't need the extra one VFP were saying she should have, and results within 20 mins!

These vets that have been taken over by conglomerates are extortionate. My independent vet sold to one of them when she retired two years ago & the charges have more than doubled, they charge £10 to administer an injection on top of the price of the content & the consultation fee which had increased from £28 to £69.
Im still looking for an independent vet. I found a wonderful one last year when my dog hurt her foot when I was over 400 miles away but they’re as rare as hen’s teeth anywhere near here.