Vets, eh?
I know quite a lot about Veterinary Surgeons. I've worked with them since 1982. I number three among my friends, and I even had one as a father-in-law for 14 years. They all know my view, and now you're about to find out why vets piss me off so much.
Take a cat. We have two. Pick one; the black one or the mottled 'fell in the ink bottle' one. Every year it needs a few doses of worming unction. Total cost about £6 from Tesco. It also needs a bit of flea prevention. A couple of collars at around £2 each. And then in swoops the mighty, all powerful, monopoly vet who insists that it has a vaccination every year and charges me per cat, £39.00. And let me tell you it's £39 in either of the practices here, any of the six in Oxford and so on.
When I was in the business of selling vaccine doses to the self same veterinary surgeon, they cost that practitioner £2.00 per dose. Yes, two pounds. OK, so that was few years ago but the mark-up then was still around 95%. Nowadays the cost of the vaccine is around £5 per dose.
I had my cat vaccinated. It took approximately six minutes. The young (trainee?) vet had a quick feel around, looked at the cats bum and pronounced her fit and healthy, broke open the vial and whacked in the sub-cut dose, gave me a long spiel about how marvellous their pet insurance was because it paid out again and again unlike some policies which only pay out once and didn't I want to sign on the dotted here and now and when I said no, shoved me out the door almost £40 lighter.
I have oft been tempted by the idea of buying a veterinary practice because I know the last person who should be running one is a vet. In my practice you'll be able to arrive unbooked with your little darling for its annual jab on our "vaccine morning" when a nurse will administer the dose and you'll be charged £15.00. You won't be given a "free" examination for your darling moggie because you didn't book one. If you want one of those we'd be delighted to accommodate you, please make an appointment with one of our lovely veterinary surgeons.
But it's all changing and vets are squealing like the very pigs they stick. Did you know you now have the right to go into your vet and demand that they give you a script for whatever drug therapy they prescribe? And you can take that prescription and have it fulfilled anywhere? So you can shop around for the best cost (like here for example)? No, I bet you didn't. It's not like your local practice is going to publicise it, are they, not with mark-ups of around nine times the purchase price available because we're all suckers who sit and take it.
And dogs are more expensive, so by the time I have had my three pets vaccinated I have shelled out about £130 to buy around £15 of product. Yes, I know it was administered by a vet who took five years to learn his/her trade and who deserves to be rewarded. I couldn't agree more, but they should be using their skill and training. Not vaccinating my cat. A nurse is more than qualified to do that.
Here's the anomaly: vaccination £39, speying £50. One is a simple subcutaneous jab that takes a few seconds, the other invasive surgery requiring anaesthesia and a team of (two or more) people in an expensively kitted-out operating theatre, as well as a 'recovery room'. It's totally, totally bonkers .
What goes around comes around. They wouldn't have this new rule if they had treated us fairly in the first place.
8 comments:
do you remember that Norweigan girl, I think she was called something like Trude Mostyue, from one of the orginal series of Vets in Practise (or was it Practice?)
it took her years to learn how to stick a needle in a cat's neck, rather than right thru it and out the other side (thus squirting the contents of the syringe all over the camera crew)
maybe you are paying for the benefit of these people's seven-year-plus training?
maybe not, just a thought!
she was scarily inept. i always thought that working in top shop would have been a bit of a stretch for her, never mind curing sick animals.
it's not hard. it's not even approaching quite difficult. nor even moderately taxing. in the days when I had a father in law, i've done it myself. and most farmers and farm staff (past life, etc) can inject animals. trude mostue married her personal trainer (how footballers wives) and is having babies in bath. surly is right, and I only hope, for their sake, that mostue uses disposable nappies.
somehow i think she stumbled into the wrong profession. didn't it take her about 60 goes to get her exams too?
When I was at university, EVERY vet student (apart from one bloke from a farming family) I met was unashamedly in it for the money.
(They earn more than doctors and dentists apparently.)
Ooooh Spinny, don't get me started on the teacher's pets and spoiled children who become vets. And yes, vets earn a fuck of a lot of money. But are they satisfied? No, hence the closed shop and the rip-off of the general pet owning public.
Actually, i think dentists (privte) earn more nowadays.
nice rant beep. I used to take my dog to a vet who charged $29 just to put the dog on the table, let alone do anything.
now you should go pet your cat, I hear it brings your blood pressure down :-)
I wouldn't mind paying for the stuff so much if they could just cut my dog's toenails while they're at it!
But he defeats them every time.
And isn't it funny how the treatment always cost a pound or two less than the excess on the insurance! (though to be fair I did get my money's worth out of the insurance once)
Having second thoughts about pet ownership now. Sounds like *far* too much hassle.
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