Currently it’s almost impossible for pet owners to compare prices or service levels offered by different vets and VetHelpDirect aims to make things clearer. The prices we have collected have been picked up today by The Times . We are aiming to help pet owners to understand the type of care provided by a clinic and we hope that alongside our 100k+ vet specific reviews this will help pet parents to start to more meaningfully compare vet practices

VetHelpDirect is helping pet parents to choose the right vet – that’s why we exist in the first place! Since 2006 we have been helping  pet owners to compare vets through customer reviews, detailed information on services, and RCVS accreditation status. Now we are publishing prices, becoming the first service to enable owners to compare vets this way. 

We are working with the profession: overall, vets have been very open to sharing their pricing and although we have not had many of the vet corporates publish their prices yet, signs are positive that this might happen soon. Watch this space. Very few practices have specifically opted out of this service, and we are hopeful that vets will see this sort of transparency as helping to signpost pet owners to the most appropriate vet for them.

Why do we need to improve the way vet practices can be compared?

Currently the only easy way clients can evaluate the service level of a vet is to phone them, look at their website or get cues from their brand. It’s often difficult to know what to look for or how a given practice compares to others, VetHelpDirect aims to go behind the scenes and give a more accurate idea of the level of service provision as well as prices. Vets are businesses and our aim is for it to continue to make business sense to invest in clinical standards into the future vs a focus on brand and waiting room aesthetics

Vet practices vary a lot – but it’s rarely a case of bad vets and good vets. Remember, vets are highly qualified people with sophisticated equipment and facilities, it’s a closely regulated business and ‘bad vets’ are few and far between. Veterinary facilities and the extra qualifications of vets and nurses on the team can vary widely among different practices; some have CT scanners, endoscopy and half hour consults, others play an important role in providing care at an affordable price – there’s an important place for all types in the market. In summary, expensive does not equal good/ bad, it’s a question of what level of service is being offered for that fee.

It’s a complex (and ongoing) task but we are making our first steps towards making the service provided and pricing more transparent by contacting the vets and collecting some standard prices and information:

  • Health plan costs and contents
  • First consultation fee and length of consult
  • A 35kg dog castrate and whats included

We are currently adding:

  • Prescription charges 
  • The costs of out of hours care

And we will be adding a wider range of species-specific fees in the near future.

Sophisticated Veterinary Care

In the UK incredibly sophisticated veterinary care is available, often just as advanced as the equivalent human care. A veterinary referral industry has always existed, but it has rapidly grown in recent years, with a multidisciplinary approach similar to human care. This has driven forward standards and provided treatment, diagnostics and surgical solutions to previously incurable problems. Television programs such as The Supervet have brought this to life for millions of people bringing CT, MRI, brain and heart surgery into their living rooms, raising expectations on how their own pet might be treated if ill. The extra knowledge and new techniques have improved standards at all levels across the industry and the pets involved have lived longer, happier lives.

One Size does not fit all

However, this sophistication comes at a cost to the vet practice which is of course passed on to the owners, and not all pet owners can afford it. Also some pet owners, irrespective of affordability, just want to ensure their pet does not suffer rather than going down the route of heroic or advanced treatment. This seems eminently reasonable, but it’s often unclear to pet owners how they can make this choice. Where do we draw the line between what is required for responsible pet ownership and advanced treatment or even over treatment? That’s a question for the owner, but in giving clients the option, vets may inadvertently be pushing people into thinking that this is something they “should” do.

The availability of this highly advanced care doesn’t just cause complexity  when a pet is ill, there’s choices at every level. For example, for a dog castrate, should the vet be gowned and gloved, should the dog be on fluids, how many parameters should be monitored during the anaesthetic, should the dog have a blood test before the op? If you looked at vet practices across the UK you would see every combination of these as standard with different business cost implications to the practice providing the service. Even within the profession, there is debate over how useful pre-op bloods for young, healthy animals are, for example. Some argue (reasonably) that it means you have a baseline of results for the future, and that liver or kidney disease, for instance, are sometimes picked up here. But others would point out that, on average, for every real condition picked up, several other dogs and their owners go through unnecessary procedures and stress, when in reality they are healthy.

What about if your pet gets ill? If your dog gets a cough does the dog have an xray, ultrasound of the heart, bloods, urine sample, CT scan and possibly chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy if they are found to have cancer?  Or should the vet try to treat the symptoms and be ready to resort to euthanasia sooner rather than later? Although most vets will give all these types of options to owners and guide them in making the right choice for them and their pet, the ‘this is what I would do’ solution the vet suggests when pressed, will vary significantly between practices. 

Does price reflect the service that is available?

It seems logical to expect practices with more sophisticated equipment and facilities to charge more money to the customers or ‘clients’ as they are known in the vet world. The big problem is that up until now it has difficult or impossible for the clients to evaluate the level of service or even find out in advance what the prices of the vet are. Vets have historically not published their pricing, there are many reasons for this, including that fact that until relatively recently, vets were not permitted to “advertise”, and following the Competition Commission rulings of the early 2000s, vets have been very concerned about being seen to engage in “price fixing”, making even discussion of prices difficult within the profession.

How can pet owners find the right vet for them?

All of this makes it very difficult for owners to find the right vet for them and to get any idea if the practice they are going to is bells and whistles or more basic, never mind work out what the value for money is like. This has come to a head as inflation combined with a recruitment crisis amongst vets has meant the cost of delivering this care has gone up dramatically and prices have gone up. Although the PDSA and RSPCA provide support for pet owners its generally limited to those on benefits and in the right catchment and despite the benefits of insurance it is not available for pre-existing conditions and the premiums can escalate unaffordably as the pet gets older.

We want to help pet owners find the right vet for them, their pet and their budget and we believe it helps vets too; vet practice with high end facilities and a team with extra qualifications in specialist areas often find it a challenge when clients are on a tight budget because their passion is delivering state of the art care, and the costs of just running the clinic each hour are very high. Conversely clinics focused on offering affordable care for much loved family pets can often find themselves struggling to meet expectations of clients looking for ‘The Super Vet Experience’ and this can cause stress and friction for the veterinary team.

Find a local vet

Further reading: