These are the terms on which we, House Call Vet Ltd, supply veterinary services and related products to you.

 

Registration   You must register your pet with us in order to use our services.  When you register, you will be asked to disclose certain personal information about yourself and certain details about your pet(s). As described more fully in our privacy policy, we will use your personal information and pet information solely for purposes of delivering to you any services and any third-party services you elect to receive.

You agree to provide us with true, accurate and complete personal information and pet information as requested in the registration process and to update such information promptly from time to time as necessary to keep it current and accurate. 

 

Liaising with other practices   In provision of your personal details and in accordance with the RCVS code of professional conduct, you provide your consent for us to contact your previous veterinary surgeon to obtain your pets’ medical history, including any current medical conditions and treatments received. This is necessary to offer the best and safest care possible and is required through the RCVS.

Your pet’s medical records will remain the property of House Call Vet Ltd and kept on our practice management software. Your details will never be shared with third parties except to send to other veterinary practices for continuity of care if your pet needs to be seen elsewhere, with your consent.

 

Eligibility  Our services are not available to individuals under the age of 18 or to any client whose access we have terminated for any reason.

 

Data protection   In provision of your personal details you are consenting to allow us to contact you by telephone, address or email with relevant information regarding your pets or our services. If you would prefer not to be contacted in this manner please let us know. These measures have been updated with the new GDPR legislation May 25th 2018.

More information about how we will use the personal information you provide to us are in our Privacy Policy.

 

Service fees and Payment   You can access our price list on our website: www.housecallvet.co.uk and all costs will be discussed throughout the consultation.

Weekends and evening surcharge may apply when we are making home visits out of normal business hours at the client’s request.  

Payment at the time of the consultation/ home visit is required and an itemised invoice will be emailed to you for every visit.

We reserve the right to withhold further services if there are outstanding bills.

Payment is due at time of treatment. We accept credit, debit cards or cash.

Please note that any estimate given can only be an approximation of the costs of any treatment required. If our original estimate looks as if it will be exceeded, then we will discuss any increased fees with you before any further procedures are undertaken. 

All veterinary services and products provided by us shall be charged to you in accordance with our then current price list, which is subject to change without notice.

In the event that any invoice or other sum owed by you is not paid when due then, without prejudice to any other remedies available to us, we may at any time:

• add additional charge(s) to your outstanding account in order to recover fees and costs in connection with the collection of the sum owed (including but not limited to administrative costs and debt collection agency fees); and

• issue notice to you that no further Veterinary Services and/or Products will be supplied to you.

 We may refer overdue accounts to our debt collection agency.

 

Missed appointments   Cancellations should be made with at least 24 hours notice or you may still be charged. If we arrive at your property and you or your pet are not there you will still be charged for a consultation and a home visit fee.

 

Emergency and out of hours care   We are not an emergency service. If you think your pet needs emergency treatment please go your nearest veterinary practice with emergency facilities.

Your appointment is given but must be flexible to accommodate traffic. We aspire to be with you within thirty minutes of your appointment time.

Weekends and evening surcharge may apply when we are making home visits out of normal business hours at the client’s request.  

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​Vaccination and home visit reminders   Whilst we make every effort to send out vaccination reminders, the responsibility to keep them up to date remains with you.

In provision of your personal details you are consenting to allow us to contact you by telephone, address or email with reminders or relevant information regarding your pets or our services. If you would prefer not to be contacted in this manner please let us know. These measures have been updated with the new GDPR legislation May 25th 2018.

 

Repeat prescriptions   We comply with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons guidelines regarding the dispensing of medicines, therefore we can only provide repeat prescriptions to your pet, if he/she has been seen by our veterinary surgeon within the last six months.

Our policy is to re-assess a pet, requiring repeat prescriptions every three months. The standard consultation fee applies. General health checks should be carried out every six months (or sooner if requested) and flea/worm checks every twelve months. This is in the interest of your animal’s health and is a legal requirement. 

Please give us four working days for prescription to be written. Charges must be paid in full prior to prescription being sent to you.

 

Written prescriptions  You may want to purchase veterinary medicinal products from another pharmacy, in which case a written veterinary prescription is required, these are available on request. A written prescription is chargeable to cover the administrative cost, the time taken to write the prescription and the veterinary expertise associated with deciding on adequate doses and strengths of medication.

A written prescription may not be appropriate if your pet needs immediate treatment.

​We can only issue a written prescription for a 3 months supply of medication and do not issue repeatable prescriptions, they are for single use only.

On occasion you may be required to sign an “off licence” consent form for use of medication which is not licensed for use in the species it is dispensed for (e.g. human medications prescribed for pets).

Please give us four working days for prescription to be written. Charges must be paid in full prior to prescription being sent to you.

We recommend only using VMD registered online pharmacies.

 

Medication  We cannot offer any refund on dispensed medications by law. We can however collect unused medications for safe disposal if purchased from us.

We cannot accept responsibility for any medications not supplied by us.

Pets must be seen every six months for repeat prescriptions, every twelve months for anti-parasite medications.

Antibiotics will not be supplied as a repeat prescription. Your pet must be seen each time to be given antibiotics. This is in the best interest of your pet and the general population to help prevent against antibiotic resistance.

 

Pet Insurance   We strongly recommend getting your pet insured.  If your pet becomes ill the treatments can become very expensive, easily running into thousands of pounds. Unfortunately there is no pet NHS and as a guardian of your pet it is your responsibility to cover the cost of any necessary care.

For invoices to be claimed against pet insurance, it is the responsibility of the client to initially pay for treatment and then to be reimbursed by the insurance company.  We are unable to process direct insurance claims.

As a small business we cannot function with a large number of unpaid bills and so we cannot claim direct from insurance companies.

 

Safety policy   Please warn us if your pet has shown aggression to strangers before.

We reserve the right to refuse treatment if a visit becomes unsafe.

We reserve the right to stop any treatment or exam if there is risk to human health through animal behaviour. You will still be charged for this visit.

 

Complaints   It is our intention that all our clients should be satisfied with our services and products supplied. In the event that you are dissatisfied with any aspect of the services and products supplied by us or its staff, in the first instance you should contact the Director or Practice Manager to discuss your concerns and they shall endeavour to address any issues arising.

In the case of a complaint, we may share your information with our insurers or our indemnity providers or other professional advisors if we believe that this will enable us to resolve your complaint more effectively.

 

Miscellaneous   House Call Vet Ltd reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time. Please check these Terms and Conditions on a regular basis for changes. Your continued use of our services and our website (www.housecallvet.co.uk) after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms and Conditions.

Our website (www.housecallvet.co.uk) may contain links to other websites but we have no control over the content on other sites - please be aware that links may lead to sites that you are uncomfortable viewing.

We cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time and House Call Vet Ltd has no control over the availability of the linked page.

References in these Terms to "we" or "us" or "our" refer to House Call Vet Ltd.