The Competition and Markets Authority is undertaking a review of the small animal veterinary practice market.
There are concerns about pricing, access to prescriptions and medications and the variety of services that are available.
In the days of Alf Wight, most vets were self-employed and often worked out of their home, much as GPs did. They did all their own out of hours work. It certainly wasn’t as rose-tinted as Wight portrayed in his James Herriot books (for a more accurate portrayal see Gareth Steel’s Never Work With Animals, Harper Collins, London, 2022) and options open to vets were several limited. Most people also had few expectations that small animals could be helped by vets in many situations and prophylactics, if used, were primitive.
Veterinary treatment options have expanded out of all proportions and people often expect the same high standard of treatment for their companion animal as they do themselves. This has to be paid for. The difference is that, shielded by the NHS where, however poor we may perceive it to be at times we do not pay at the point of receipt of care, owners therefore rarely understand how high the costs are for the provision of that treatment.
Small animal practices have changed too. They moved out of private homes into high streets and now, even independent vets often need to have more than one practice in order to survive in a competitive market. Meanwhile, independent practices were consolidated into groups and the groups are being bought out by venture capitalists. At this end of the chain, vets have little or no control over policies, practices or prices. Just as the corner shop became the high street emporium and then the out-of-town shopping “village”, the consolidation takes the individual vet further away from the business and the clientele and ultimately leads to far less choice for the client.
That’s capitalism folks.
Fortunately we still have some checks. The CMA have 3 surveys:
For owners who have paid for veterinary services within the last 3 years
For veterinary staff
For anyone not in the above 2 categories with an interest.
The survey will be open for “up to 6 weeks” which suggests that it may close earlier if sufficient responses are received.