How much does your vet charge for a consult?

[InWithPeaceOutWithStress]

Just out of interest / for comparison?

My vet charges £51 for every consult. Medivet Group. I'm based in the Northwest.

It seems extortionate..!

Ours charges £56, Staffordshire.
We’re with their ‘healthy pet club’ which pays for flea/worming treatment, 6 monthly appt with the vet for weight/check up etc.

Any time we’ve had to book in with them they’ve been very thorough.

Our Medivet locally is known to be pricey, so we use a small independent vets who charge £35.

Hope it’s ok to ask an aside question..do any of you have small pets like hamsters and are the vet fees as high. My daughter pays £65 consult fee for her dog. That would seem excessive if granddaughter gets a hamster which gets poorly.

Why? Is the knowledge required proportionate to the size of the animal in some way? Arguably, smaller and more delicate animals are much harder to treat.

£54 in Surrey

£45.

Pet plans probably work if you have 1 or 2 pets but we have 11 so no way can we afford to go down that road, the monthly cost would be ridiculous.

We had a new practice open near us a few years ago & they offered 'vax for life' so that saved us a fortune - they used it to build their client list up & it soon became popular, they opened up 2 other practices in other busy areas probably 10 miles apart. Our practice was always busy, they always had 4 vets on & each had their own room - there were probably 8 vets on their books and lots of nursing staff plus receptionists.

After covid they had an extension built so doubled the size of the building. They do all their diagnostic testing in house & all the various treatments you can think of. Then they introduced consultation fees at £29. Gradually the majority of original vets have left, there's half as many nurses & they've just removed the reception desk that always had 3 receptionists on. The consultation fee jumped up to £49, then £50 and it's now £52 with a follow up consultation fee of £49.

They've lost so many clients - the waiting room is always empty and there's only 1 or 2 vets on duty.

It used to be £400 to get cats teeth scaled/polished & any necessary removals, now it's £900.

It won't work round here for much longer.

£50

Really, most vets are owned by hedgefund organisations who only want to make money, most vet bills are over the top

£68

£50 at a Medivet practice - not noticed much change in fees (over & above inflation) since they joined the group.

Things to take into consideration off the top of my head are vet salaries, nurse salaries, possibly reception salaries. Property rental/mortgage, council tax, water, power, cleaning products, PPE, property maintenance, IT, replacement and updating of veterinary equipment, paying up front for stock (that may not be used/sold while still in date), continuous professional development etc for staff.

Not an exhaustive list by any means, but gives you an idea of what overheads a veterinary practice can have.

£58

£50

So that's, what 20 minutes, so £153 per hour.

That has to pay:

• the vet
• the nurse
• the receptionist
• the cleaner
• the admin staff
• the rent or mortgage on the building
• heat, light, burglar alarm, buildings and contents insurance on the building as well as all the incidentals like plumber and electrician when needed, fix the boiler.
• professional indemnity
• consumables like gloves, needles, syringes, also printer paper, toner
• new computers when they need replacing, keeping them updated, subscriptions to antivirus software etc

etc etc etc etc

How much would you expect an experienced professional, like a vet, to be paid per hour? And how much do you think they are actually getting out of that? The NHS being free means that we have absolutely no understanding in the UK about how much healthcare costs.

I've got two local vet surgeries. One has swanky premises and is open 7am - 7pm, has several vets on site and a mobile service, they charge €40 per consult plus meds. They've treated my cats several times and have been brilliant (but pricey).

The second is an older guy working solo, he just charges me €45 each visit no matter what the cat needs (including meds). I've called him twice on bank holidays to treat Kloppy's emergencies and he's opened up specially and still only charged me €45. He also treated my girlcat for periodontal disease and kept her in overnight, the bill for removing all her teeth was €125.

All depends on who owns the practice. Many are being bought out buy American pharmaceuticals companies and it’s all about profit .Its the poor staff who have to past these charges on.
This is why the RVC - Royal Veterinary College, have had many complaints regarding pricing and I understand the RVC, IMO long over due are looking into regulating pricing and to try to make vets more transparent.
The whole Sector needs regulating, which is astonishing considering its deals with Animals we love.
I Am not taking about veterinary surgeons, nurses, staff on the whole are amazing .

£19 - Cumbria.

None of the groups are own by pharmaceutical companies - one is owned by Mars, another part owned by Nestle. Some of the groups own veterinary wholesalers these are not pharmaceutical companies.
The RVC is the Royal Veterinary College an institution that trains veterinary surgeons.
The RCVS is the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons who oversees the professional conduct of veterinary surgeons and are the body that all veterinary surgeons in the UK must be a member of to be entitled to call themselves a veterinary surgeons. The RCVS has no power to oversee pricing of veterinary services and will not become involved in disputes regarding fees. It also has no power at all the businesses which own the majority of practices it can only regulate individual veterinary surgeons behaviour.
The CMA is investigating the sector in particular market structure and clarity of pricing structure.

I was going to say about £50.

My vets are owned by IVC Evidensia.

They charge £56 per consult. Follow up consults for the same problem used to be discounted slightly but they’ve recently stopped that.

I am also in the NorthWest.

Was £56 but changed vet and now £32, east Herts