Veterinary negligence

I am so lucky in that I have a smashing vet who I would trust with my life.

However, I am also aware that there are good and bad professionals in every 'trade'. So what happens if you get a bad vet?
I wondered how many people are aware of the complaints system against negligent vets?

Nearly every week in my dog info magazine, there are cases of deaths or unecessary pain due to veterinary negligence.
The owners rarely win their case. The Royal College almost always agree with their vets.

Could this be because there is no independent Ombudsman for this profession?
Veterinary complaints are handled by the veterinary profession themselves!

This week alone I have read of 2 more dreadful cases of neglect resulting in the death of people's animals.

1. A dog with gastric bloat (which needs emergency surgery), was operated on out of hours, then left on its own aferwards with no one available to check on it for 7 hours after the emergency surgery!
It was found dead in their kennel.
It had been left with insufficient fluid therapy and inadequate pain relief.

2. A Best of Breed Crufts dog. Only 20 days later, her owner was handed her remains in a box!
The dog had had surgery but the next day the wound began leaking blood and fluid and was in pain.
The young vet left the dog and went home for her lunch.
The dog deteriorated.
Afer repeated calls from the owner, the lady went herself, collected her dog and took it to the veterinary school in Edinburgh herself, where the animal was discovered to be in septic shock. 2 litres of fluid were removed and part of her intestines.
When the dog's owner complained to the original surgery, she found she had been marked down as " A difficult owner!"
This dog also died.
The owner received bills over around £11,000!

Then there was the case I said about recently, where a vet and her nurse had to perform an emergency C-Section on a dog, then went on to nick 2 of the puppies, (one of which died), telling the owenr only 4 were born instead of the 6!
This vet was only suspended from practicing for 6 months for her devious theft, then she could go back to work as if nothing happened.

The owner in the second case above says - "An independent regulator of the veterinary profession is really important to me. I feel my complaint should be heard by an independent party, rather than a professional body regulating itself."

I couldn't agree more.
Mortgage and energy providers have independent regulators, why not vets?

I am told there is is a petition running on Facebook for the government to sort this out, but not doing Facebook I can't give you the link.

(Apologies for such a long post).

Re: Veterinary negligence

The problem is, nobody in the profession wants to know or cares. It will only change when the pet of a very wealthy individual, wealthy couple or wealthy family lose their pet due to veterinary incompetence/negligence and they take the veterinary profession to court. Words mean nothing, it goes in one ear and out the other BUT financial losses in the court due to negligence will cause the profession to stand up and take notice. When it comes to issues of incompetence and negligence, loss of money is what matters, not words.

Re: Veterinary negligence

You're probably right, Dodge.

I do think they should not be regulating themselves though.

There is an ombudsman for complaints about human healthcare, so why not for the veterinary profession?

Re: Veterinary negligence

We had a locum vet in our practice ,I usually always see David,fantastic vet.

I never knew when attending Rosie's six month check up,that it was going to be this vet....he rushed through the examination ,plus made her feet bleed when he clipped her nails.

I never put in a complaint,but I can assure you,next time I visit,I will let them know,that I don't want him to examine my dog ,I will also tell them why.

I pay privately for my dogs consultation /examination ,I expect a professional approach .

Re: Veterinary negligence

Its time some of these Vets are held to account not just the botched up jobs but the money they charge is ridicules; My lab suffers from seasonal allergies the vet sent us to dermatologist who charged us a £100 per visit +£400 for a
deep clean for inner ears +another visit he gave her an injection suppose to help with the allergies that cost £130 her belly went bright red; We have been using Aloe Vera and she is 100% better no thanks to that mob they phoned to see if we were returning for a follow up injection my wife answered and wouldn't let me on the phone she is the diplomat me not so much

Re: Veterinary negligence

So many vets are cold and up their own fundament.
It’s seems to come with the job

At the other hand there are caring good vets it’s just a matter of finding them !


I want a good skilled competent Vet who is going to look after my dog and is not going to talk down to me ,I am after all paying his wages and am not a completely moron so a bit of kindly basket side manner would not go amiss

Re: Veterinary negligence

I completely agree, Mups. If you should manage to find the link to the petition, I shall gladly sign it and also share it with others.

This, too, is very true. Our vets seem to be competent (as far as I can tell) and even caring, but they certainly know how to charge. I have found treatments sold online at much cheaper prices than the vet charges, but they require a prescription before they send the stuff. To be fair, though, I suppose the vets have overheads.

Re: Veterinary negligence

JBR, you say . . . " This, too, is very true. Our vets seem to be competent (as far as I can tell) and even caring, but they certainly know how to charge. I have found treatments sold online at much cheaper prices than the vet charges, but they require a prescription before they send the stuff. To be fair, though, I suppose the vets have overheads."


*

JBR, you may or may not be aware, but a vet is obliged to give you the prescription to buy from wherever you want. They cannot force you to buy from only them.

One of my dogs needed a repeat prescription a while back, my vet gladly wrote it out and gave it to me for a small charge of around £10. The prescription was for a 6 x repeat, so I still saved a small fortune buying elsewhere. He is a good man, and didn't mind at all.

It is like a GP. They cannot make you buy from a certain pharmacy, you can take a prescription wherever you want.

You have to send the prescription to the drug company along with your payment, and they will then send you the appropriate medications.
I always deal with these people and find them very reliable and helpful - they do human meds as well as animals meds:

https://www.hyperdrug.co.uk/?gclid=E...SAAEgKiIPD_BwE

I even buy my wormers from Hyperdrug at about one third of the vet's prices.

Re: Veterinary negligence

Thanks Mups.

Unfortunately, a £10 charge for prescription wouldn't have been cost effective in my case. I may have saved nearly that amount for what we needed, but at the same time I may have rubbed the vet up the wrong way!

And as expert at rubbing I may be, she probably wouldn't have liked it!

Re: Veterinary negligence

Oh, ok.
Perhaps bear it in mind if you ever need expensive repeats.

I wouldn't worry too much about offending her, for all you know quite a few of her clients ask for the prescription, so she's probably used to it.