Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Bob Russell — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 11:32:58 GMT

Vets generally are allowed significant licence when it comes to 'biologically related' subjects.

As students (vets and medics) we used to clear flats of non-vet flatmates by tales of flowing diarrhoea between bites of food - very effective indeed!

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:11:33 GMT

Vulgar or not,this thread is genuinely funny (IMHO )

Wynne

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

J G Wray — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:29:22 GMT

[quote user="Vikki Halliday"]Gentlemen! Please[/quote]

Certainly Madam. Chaucer had it: The Merchants Tale 761

Vulgarity elevated to culture

JGW

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Clive Ansell — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:11:04 GMT

Yes, sorry, it is starting to get out of hand (pardon the pun)

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Mark Hedberg — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:48:58 GMT

Gentlemen? Where?

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Vikki Halliday LLB — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:06:51 GMT

Gentlemen! Please!!!!!

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Clive Ansell — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 20:33:51 GMT

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

If you contact my brother who works for Playboy in the US, he may be able to suggest a course of therapy that may help in all but advanced cases.

(calls from landlines are £1.50 per minute, mobiles may be more)

[/quote]

I'm not sure I fancy coming down with Repetitive Stress Injury, to be honest... :p

[/quote]

Repetitive is > 100, if the condition is severe it is likely to be <10 !

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Mark Hedberg — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 20:14:25 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

If you contact my brother who works for Playboy in the US, he may be able to suggest a course of therapy that may help in all but advanced cases.

(calls from landlines are £1.50 per minute, mobiles may be more)

[/quote]

I'm not sure I fancy coming down with Repetitive Stress Injury, to be honest... :p

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Clive Ansell — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 19:39:02 GMT

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]

[quote user="Jonathan Wray"]

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]Cyanotic hyperspermaceous testiculitis? [/quote]

Otherwise known as DBS

Dangerous

Buildup of .....

[/quote]

I was going for Blue Ball Syndrome, meself :p

[/quote]

If you contact my brother who works for Playboy in the US, he may be able to suggest a course of therapy that may help in all but advanced cases.

(calls from landlines are £1.50 per minute, mobiles may be more)

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Mark Hedberg — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:19:37 GMT

[quote user="Jonathan Wray"]

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]Cyanotic hyperspermaceous testiculitis? [/quote]

Otherwise known as DBS

Dangerous

Buildup of .....

[/quote]

I was going for Blue Ball Syndrome, meself :p

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

bob lehner — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:47:19 GMT

[quote user="Vikki Halliday"]

...and what exactly constitutes that sort of emergency?!!

[/quote]

Confused elderly gentleman who OD'd on those little blue pills ?

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

J G Wray — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:10:51 GMT

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]Cyanotic hyperspermaceous testiculitis? [/quote]

Otherwise known as DBS

Dangerous

Buildup of .....

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Mark Hedberg — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 09:39:52 GMT

Cyanotic hyperspermaceous testiculitis? :D

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Bob Russell — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:55:43 GMT

[quote user="Vikki Halliday"]

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

I wonder what they charge for an emergency call out ?

[/quote]

...and what exactly constitutes that sort of emergency?!!

[/quote]

Don't ask!

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Vikki Halliday LLB — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:54:46 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

I wonder what they charge for an emergency call out ?

[/quote]

...and what exactly constitutes that sort of emergency?!!

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Clive Ansell — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:50:05 GMT

[quote user="Malcolm Ness"]

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]In fact, you probably could charge £200 for a prescription. It's just that you'd probably have to thrown in a glass of champagne and a massage on collection[/quote]

£5=00 for the prescription plus £35=00 for the champagne (full bottle, no rubbish), that leaves £160=00 for the massage.

Pricey!! - there are lasses in Newcastle (I am told) that will do a lot more than a massage for a lot less than £160=00.

[/quote]

Reminds me of my clinical years at Liverpool, whilst on rotations we used to stay in the flat above the small animal hospital on Crown street watching the activities of the ladies of the night below - they seemed to do a roaring trade and were really busy even in the worst of British weather. The one in the purple-pink thing used to process a client every 40 minutes or so. I wonder what they charge for an emergency call out ?

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

J G Wray — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:59:49 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]Interesting - I never knew that - will bear it in mind when I am on long-term treatment for senile decrepitude.[/quote]

Alas, no you won't.

JGW

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Anthony Todd — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:58:12 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

I forgot to add - if we give advice it is only a bit of hot air, why are we charging for that?[/quote]

Complete Bollards! [and one "!" is enough]

At risk of teaching grandparents to suck their teeth

IMHO a repeat should be precluded by:

Preamble: Why the steps below are necessary [for the vet, the client and the animal]

1. How is the animal? >> vary dose?? >> change drug >> reexamine

2. Any side-effects? >> as above

3. Animal's weight? >> as above

4. Is the dose being given as directed? [or is the dose even written on the last prescription or is it just "as before" or " as directed"]

5. Is the label correct? [er, is it for Lanoxin instead of Lincocin....]

6. Length of prescription before reexamination and why.

7. Repeated verbal recitation of instructions slowly, distinctly and with eye contact.

and I'm sure others will add to this list

If you, or someone, can be bothered doing all the above you won't have any moans.

and if you dispense Lanoxin instead of Lincocin you'll get sued even if you did it for free

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

bob lehner — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:00:47 GMT

[quote user="Martin Jones"]True enough, Bob. But that sum actually includes the medicine - it's a way of flattening out the costs of medications,[/quote]

Good point, but of course most pople (at least those in employment) will have already paid pretty heavily up front for medical treatment, which they may or may not require personally, through tax and NIC - which is of course the big difference between the NHS , which so many people strangely think of as 'free' and private veterinary practice, which clearly is not.

[quote user="Jonathan Wray"]I pay for it with a NHS Prescription Charge Certificate, which is an annual flat rate of just over £100 irrespective of how many different scripts I get pa. [/quote]

Interesting - I never knew that - will bear it in mind when I am on long-term treatment for senile decrepitude.

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Bob Russell — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:29:25 GMT

Bottle of Newcastle Brown (perhaps two) if they were lucky when I lived there (I was late teens/early 20's).

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Malcolm Ness — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:24:55 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]In fact, you probably could charge £200 for a prescription. It's just that you'd probably have to thrown in a glass of champagne and a massage on collection[/quote]

£5=00 for the prescription plus £35=00 for the champagne (full bottle, no rubbish), that leaves £160=00 for the massage.

Pricey!! - there are lasses in Newcastle (I am told) that will do a lot more than a massage for a lot less than £160=00.

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Bob Russell — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:07:52 GMT

''On a personal note, having just got my three year old home after a couple of horrific weeks in hospital (ruptured appendix with all the complications that might be expected), I consider that the NHS and its employees are on the side of the angels, worth more than we pay them, and anybody who disagrees is invited to (metaphorically) step outside.''

My wife had surgery two weeks ago and on Monday phoned in a blind panic because she was bleeding (a blood bath really) but when I phoned the GP the 'triage nurse' was more interested in the fact that the surgery was closing at 1pm for lunch.

Instead of a GP patching her up, writing a referral note and getting her off to the local hospital directly, we ended up in A+E for 21/2 hours waiting for a doctor to see her for 2 minutes before she was sent up to the very ward she would have gone to directly if the GP had seen her hours earlier!

No complaints about the treatment given - they got her sorted and back home later that night but it was an 'interesting' experience! Would you close for lunch with a bleeding (albeit not dying) patient to be seen? I suspect not.

Only saving grace is that the GP will be billed several hundred pounds for an A+E admission!!!! An expensive lunch break!

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

J G Wray — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:41:55 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]Prescriptions made by GPs for long-term medication on the NHS have to be renewed monthly (without seeing the doctor) - and you pay a prescription charge (about £6-7 I think currently) every time you pick up the medicine from the chemist (unless you are an OAP, pregnant etc). I'm pretty sure this regime/charge is imposed by the Government solely to raise revenue and has little to do with clinical issues, where clearly the renewal interval could be much longer in many cases.[/quote]

Well as someone else has pointed out, the charge defrays some of the cost of meds, but, in my case the monthly thing isn't so onerous for me or lucrative for the Government. I order using a secure online system, my local Sainsbury's chemist collects the script from the GP and dispenses the drug, to be collected along with the booze and butter. I pay for it with a NHS Prescription Charge Certificate, which is an annual flat rate of just over £100 irrespective of how many different scripts I get pa. All those on long term meds should get one of these pre payment certs - application forms are available on line and at the GPs.

I see the GP annually. This is my experience and my clients' medical experience and v different from my own practice. So, I am crystal about how to justify my script charge and re examination interval. What's so difficult about explaining it to clients?

JGW

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Hannah Wynne Richards — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:18:32 GMT

Martin I totally agree with you-we have a duty of care for ALL prescriptions we issue-but at £5 this doesn't cover the cost of a veterinary surgeons time checking-so somebody else has to subsidise

Arlo I'll avoid the exclamation mark in future

Wynne

Re: Vets on BBC 'Rip Off Britain'

Martin Jones — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:16:50 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]

Prescriptions made by GPs for long-term medication on the NHS have to be renewed monthly (without seeing the doctor) - and you pay a prescription charge (about £6-7 I think currently) every time you pick up the medicine from the chemist (unless you are an OAP, pregnant etc).

[/quote]

True enough, Bob. But that sum actually includes the medicine - it's a way of flattening out the costs of medications, so if like me you're an asthmatic, then you pay seven quid for an inhaler which actually only costs a couple of pounds; if, on the other hand, you're suffering from something complicated, you pay seven quid for something which might actually cost hundreds.

The central argument might be that we've already paid for the meds, so shouldn't be paying again - but IMHO it's a good trade-off against an indiscriminate and cripplingly expensive waterfall of 'free' treatment - as those who have experience of PDSA / Blue Cross will attest.

On a personal note, having just got my three year old home after a couple of horrific weeks in hospital (ruptured appendix with all the complications that might be expected), I consider that the NHS and its employees are on the side of the angels, worth more than we pay them, and anybody who disagrees is invited to (metaphorically) step outside.