Vets for Pets

Good quality of care and I like the Vet's, but the pricing is hardly what you'd call 'transparent' . Drug pricing is particularly opaque. If you think about it, a Vets pharmacy is just the same as a old fashioned sweet shop. You speak with the person behind the counter & they hand over what you want/need. If you were in the sweet-shop and were going to have a party, you might make the decision to buy in bulk elsewhere (and in the case of a Vet they will charge a Prescription Fee to allow you to do this (circa £25 at V4P) because it's a licensed activity. In both cases the storekeeper/Vet gets to 'mark up' the items as they please, and you 9the customer) make their informed choice.... EXCEPT.....at Vets for Pets there is never a visible price, and even when you ask the price of the item, you then get pinged with a 'dispensing fee' on top (typically then a 60% mark-up + dispensing fee?) - Just imagine how THAT (dispensing fee) would go down in our comparison Sweet Shop!!!.. It's a classic barrier to competition, so much so that the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) have suggested the following common sense measures.... 1) Mandatory Price Publication: Requiring practices to display prices for common services and products. & 2) Prescription Reform: Capping prescription markups and making it easier to get prescriptions to buy meds online. Personally, I don't have an issue with mark-ups provided prices are shown, afterall, every business has a margin, but the 'Dispensing fee' is risible, it reminds me of when Ryanair said they were going to charge passengers to use on-board toilets! No doubt Vets for Pets will come back with some waffle about it being too complicated to actually have a price list, as the price they pay for stock regularly changes so they'd have to constantly change the published price.... but isn't this the reality for EVERY OTHER business selling in a shop/in-person setting? Given the Burgess Hill branch is actually inside a SHOP, perhaps they could ask for some advice.

We were with the practice for over a decade, left recently. The care is hit and miss; there is a large roster of vets looking after thousands of pets. They don't get to know you or care about your pet personally, they are primarily a for-profit business enterprise and profit comes well ahead of the pet. The £200 blood tests seem to be the go-to diagnostic and care tool. Medication is priced at 50-60% more than online and we felt like the practice not only didn't advise us but actively tried to prevent us from getting transparent pricing information so that we can order the meds elsewhere. The practice is running late most days and we were rarely seen for appointments on time. There were various administrative blunders, from the reception giving incorrect treatment information to having to chase insurance forms because the practice didn't action them. I am of course biased as one of our cats died in their care of a preventable cause but there is better priced, better quality care and care plans available elsewhere, especially for pets with long-term conditions.

We have used them since getting our dog and they have been amazing and gone above and beyond. Staff are so friendly and helpful

Great place for your beloved pets from all your essentials to grooming to vets