Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

RE: Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

grumpyoldman — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 10:28:50 GMT

If someone has a pet and cannot get to the vets between 8:30 am and 7:30 pm because life is so busy you really have to ask yourself does this individual really have time for a pet in their life?. I had a phone call from a V4P last bank holiday friday on my car phone at 8;30 AM while driving into the practice to see a collapsed HGE . The clearly embarrassed nurse wanted the history of a cat with an FAD so that their vet could administer an injection of emergency depo for the emergency scratching . When I looked on the computer I found one of my nurses had seen the cat in an FOC consult 2 years ago and gave them some hibiscrub to clean its wounds because they had no money then. Since then it had been neutered c/o a local charity's funding. I explained to the nurse that I was driving ,on my way to an emergency and my staff were all off for the bank holiday at home with their husbands children and families, planning a day of quality time ,where frankly you should be!!.

Having thought about it I have to say they can have as many of these clients as they like because a waiting room packed with them will generate the square root of bugger all in turnover and profit. One thing I have learned over the years is that every sperm is not sacred , you need more good clients not more of any clients.

RE: Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

listhestar — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 09:42:57 GMT

I am with most of the comments above. I have had some very odd consults in my time 'my dog has had an ear infection for 2 weeks but now its bank holiday monday I want seeing'. I would worry that everyone else will follow suit. Try getting a plumber/sparky/lock smith at OOH for the same price - there's a surcharge for a reason. Maybe it will encourage more people to get treatment earlier OR the owner doesn't go into work late and drops off the young dog with a FB but leaves it to 10pm to get care?

Lisa

RE: Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

Amy Bostock — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 02:12:20 GMT

Don't forget, the advantage of a 'dedicated' out of hours service is that you have a team very experienced in dealing with emergency cases. Day time and night time cases differ enormously.

RE: Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

morven shaw — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 15:42:26 GMT

not convinced they really answer they "how will this affect the quality of the vets and nurses working at the practices?" very effectively. surely it must negatively affect their quality of life as they are being asked to work more antisocial hours on a rota basis presumably for no change in renumeration (as stated by grumpy old man above they will likely not be busier but just see clients whenever the client decides they can manage- good for the client but bad for health of veterinary staff) - and i am not wowed at the actuality of this click baiting headline. they are in effect open 2 hours longer than we are already for routine consults only and offering the same services as we already do. and i already work a lot of anti social hours for no extra renumeration so am not thrilled at the prospect of this becoming a trend in the veterinary profession that others will feel the need to "keep up with the jonses" regarding. bad news for all but the clients i feel. (as the patients can still be seen all day long and into the evening by us already, and through the night on our own ooh service provison but ooh fees do discourage the odd more routine thing that should be seen during our 12 hour normal working day, including being open both days for 8 hours for routine appts at weekends- how people find it "difficult to manage" to be seen during normal hours on these extended opening times i find hard to digest). not a move forward for veterinary staff welfare i feel in an already over worked sector with often poor work life balance as it is.

RE: Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

james buick — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 14:59:48 GMT

Love the comment grumpyoldman!I'd tend to agree. I can't see too many people coming in with routine things at crazy times. The only way they will make the money they need to pay staff is by poaching clients from vetsnow etc. They'll then try and convert them to daytime clients too.

RE: Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

Cool — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 14:34:08 GMT

Hmmmm here we go again. In my opinion this makes veterinary services cheap and just makes the profession look cheap. Is it a threat to vetsnow? Probably.

RE: Vets4Pets set to revolutionise OOH with 24 hour clinics

grumpyoldman — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 19:41:06 GMT

we were approached by these people to do their OOH a few months ago . I said no , do it yourselves . I expect many other people do too.The fact that they approached us suggests 1. their incumbent JVPs were not up for it and had probably not signed up for it . 2. They were looking for a better or cheaper option than vetsnow.

It will be interesting to see what happens if they try and run a normal practice doing weekend spays and castrations when a hemo-abdomen and a GDV rock up at the same time with one vet and nurse on duty and no cover. Many of these places have mushroomed without OOH cover and overnight provision relying heavily on vetsnow,some of the out of town pet superstore outlets have their vehicular access closed off at night.

An old friend owned a successful fish and chip shop for years always said opening at lunchtime and teatime tuesday to saturday was great because whatever time you opened until people only ate a set amount of fish and chips ,by opening longer you sold the same amount but had a larger wage bill . Pointless !