This website is intended to be used for information purposes only and is not intended to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment or to substitute for a medical diagnosis and/or treatment rendered or prescribed by a veterinary surgeon.
This page details our Practice Terms and Conditions. Some aspects of the Terms may not be relevant to you and we request that you ask for further explanation/clarification if required.
Prices and Charges
The main objective of the Park Vet Group Farm Department is “to work with farmers to improve livestock health”. Our major focus is on disease prevention and providing quality advice to improve the sustainability and profitability of your farm.
We achieve this through by using highly trained and experienced vets and support staff delivering a high level of service combined with regular farmer meetings.
The pricing system is designed to encourage most efficient use of our expertise and services and give good value for money to our clients
Charges
The monthly vet bill comprises of three sets of charges
- Service fees- pay as you go or via a contract
- Medicine and supplies
- Lab fees
Visits
A visit fee covers the time spent in the car by the vet and the motoring costs. Pre-booked visit fees are encouraged as these allow us to send the vets directly out on farm rather than bringing them into the surgery.
Professional time
The charge for professional time covers the cost of providing a qualified veterinary surgeon and also all the necessary overheads of providing a 24 hours, seven days a week service including other fixed overheads of the farm business. A significant amount of time is also spent by vets and staff working on problems, telephone support and analysis as part of the overall package we provide.
The vast majority of our service fees are charged on the time to perform the task i.e. on a “boots on boots off” basis. Allowances are made for slow working such as newer graduates or when working with students.
Some services such as caesareans and surgical procedures are priced as fixed fees to ensure a consistent pricing model for repeated surgery and to allow for different operating speeds.
Medicines
Medicines and lab fees are charged at their cost plus a margin to cover the overheads of stocking and supplying them. Pre-ordered bulk medicines and vaccines can be supplied for instance at a lower margin than emergency medicines which are stocked and supplied from car boots and the pharmacy. Larger volumes of medicines are cheaper to provide than smaller items and this is reflected in the costs.
Discounts
We want to encourage the most efficient use of our services and give the best value for money. Discounts are offered to all bone-fide commercial farm accounts under the following conditions and terms.
Standard terms
Our standard terms are payment by the 25th of the month.
We reserve the right to charge Interest of 2.5% on accounts more than 30 days.
Clients who have debts with the practice greater than 90 days will not be provided with any routine veterinary service and cash payment is required for any medicines. Emergency work only will be done.
In the case of clients who have debts with the practice greater than 180 days we will enter discussions about our working relationship and we may seek to regain the outstanding monies through legal procedures and we may ask you to use another veterinary practice to care for your stock.
Volume and larger farm discounts
Clients with larger volumes of purchases of bulk medicines accrue further discounts to reflect the reduced costs of handling and value to the practice.
Prescriptions
- On request the practice will provide a written prescription for any medication prescribed by the veterinary surgeon. Written prescriptions will normally be for a maximum of two months’ supply of drugs, but this may vary dependent on the nature of the condition. Twenty-four hours’ notice is required to prepare a prescription. A fee will be charged for the issue of written veterinary prescriptions.
It is a legal requirement that all animals must be under the care of a veterinary surgeon in order to dispense POM medicines.
The prescription is valid for one month
Tips to minimise your vet costs
- Help us to be efficient and keep our costs low by paying promptly and investing in decent handling facilities. The more you use us for services and medicines the better terms we can offer you.
- Appreciate the costs of disease and prioritise health. “The cheapest medicine is the one you don’t use” and use us to prevent disease and reduce treatment costs through our annual health check program.
- Annual health review. Use us to plan the health and productivity of your stock. Often the most profitable hours spent on a farm are when we get to the bottom of a problem rather then repeated visits or treatments of sick stock. A simple medicine and health check on a beef herd is a hugely popular and effective way to ensure you are using the best medicines
- Do not leave it too late to call. Very few sick animals get better on their own and the best value for money is to call us out when we can help the animal survive rather than treat a dying animal. An early diagnosis can also prevent further animals succumbing to disease.
- Discuss any costs with the vet to clearly establish what options are available. Sometimes the cheapest route may not be the best one and extra investigations, lab work or post mortems may give you the best results in the long term.
- If in doubt give us a ring. We can discuss any problem with you and help you make the right decision.
- Appreciate the big picture. One sick animal may be the start of a bigger problem. If you are not sure what is going on give us a ring.
- For non-urgent visits phone up and arrange for these to be done when we are in the area. Early phone calls help us plan the day and we can sometimes offer a lower cost visit if the vet is in the area.
Minimise the time the vet has to charge for by
- Agree a mutually convenient time. We will phone you if we are going to be more than 15-30 minutes late.
- Have the animals ready for the vet and we can phone when the vet is on the way if that helps
- Provide proper handling facilities so valuable time is not spent catching animals
- Provide washing and clean up facilities so that the clean-up time is minimised
Complaints & Standards
We hope that you never have recourse to complain about the standards of service received from The Park Veterinary Group. However, if you feel that there is something you wish to complain about, please direct your comments in the first instance to a senior member of staff. No addition or variation of these conditions will bind the practice unless it is specifically agreed in writing. and signed by one of the practice partners. No agent or person employed by, or under contract with, the practice has the authority to vary these conditions in anyway. Please visit the complaints page for more information.