Fees and charges for veterinary services

My constituent has a question about the amount they have been charged

Veterinary surgeons provide professional services for which they are entitled to charge – there is no NHS for animals. The majority of UK citizens receive their own medical care through the NHS and may not be fully aware of the actual costs of medical treatment.

Veterinary practices must remain viable businesses – which means covering the cost of good quality staff, equipment and premises. If practices go out of business this means they can no longer treat and care for animals and provide services for animal owners.

Vets are regulated by the RCVS under the Veterinary Services Act 1966- which enables us to act in cases which constitute serious professional misconduct. The College is not able to regulate the levels of fees which vets charge unless they are so serious as be misconduct.

However, the RCVS does provide guidance about communicating costs to clients so that they can make informed decisions (see below).

Why do vets fees vary so much?

The freedom to set fee levels encourages competition between practices, and competition between practices should benefit clients. Veterinary practices also differ in the range of services they offer clients.

For example, veterinary hospitals are likely to offer a wider range of services, equipment and facilities than general practices, while some types of practice concentrate on particular species or disciplines, and others may offer just vaccinations and worming, or standard surgical procedures.

The fees charged by different practices may also relate to variations in running costs including those due to local economic factors.

Are there any restrictions on vets about fees and charges?

It would be anti-competitive to seek to restrict fees and charges and, in this respect, the regulation of veterinary surgeons is in line with other health care professionals.

Vets are given guidance about fees and charges by the RCVS Guide to Professional Conduct

This guidance says that veterinary surgeons should ensure a range of reasonable treatment options are offered to clients and explained sufficiently for the client to be able to give informed consent.

Clients should be given realistic fee estimates, preferably in writing, and should be kept informed of any escalation in costs once treatment has started.

There is also extensive guidance about supplying and charging for veterinary medicines, including that practices display price-lists for common medicines and advise their clients of the prices of other medicines before supplying them.

The Guide also advises that could be provided with full terms and conditions of business including practice fee or charging structures, details of out-of-hours emergency cover, complaints handling and surgery opening times.

This is so animal owners can be well informed when choosing a practice and before there is any emergency need for a vet.

How does the RCVS encourage compliance with these provisions?

The RCVS has put in place the Practice Standards Scheme (PSS), which is a voluntary accreditation scheme for veterinary practices.

If a practice is PSS-accredited it will be inspected to ensure that it does give estimates of costs of treatments and that consent to procedures is undertaken. If the practice is found not to do this, and fails to put it, right it can lose its accreditation.

Details of the Practice Standards Scheme can be found here.

The RCVS responds to complaints about veterinary surgeons and can take action against them through the complaints procedure.

The RCVS can give formal advice to veterinary surgeons. You can find more information about making a complaint here.

In some cases may include failure to comply with fees-related guidance could amount to serious professional misconduct.