Farm Animal Terms Of Business
Thank you for entrusting the care of your animals to Fenton Vets.
Conditions of Registration
By registering you agree to the terms and conditions of business.
For clients transferring from another practice we require a full clinical history. It is a condition of registration that you consent to a financial reference being provided from previous veterinary practices, and consent to the disclosure of this information. Unsatisfactory references may result in your registration being declined or cancelled.
Fees
Please ensure all invoices are paid in full within 30 days.
At Fenton vets we offer a variety of discounts for Farm business’s please discuss your options with our staff.
All professional fees, accessories and medicine charges are subject to VAT at the current rate.
Fee levels are determined by the time and skill level required for a case as well as medicines, materials, laboratory test and consumables. You are liable for any fees incurred in the diagnosis and treatment for your animals.
The Veterinary Surgeons and staff will be pleased to discuss likely costs at any time – please don’t hesitate to ask.
Methods of payment
You may settle your account using: Direct Debit, BACS, Cash or Credit /Debit card – we accept Maestro, Solo, Mastercard, Visa and Delta.
Settlement terms
If for any reason an account is not settled in full by the following month, without prior authorisation an invoice will be sent incurring an additional accounting fee in respect of administration costs. Should it be necessary for further statements to be sent further charges will be incurred. After due notice to you the client overdue accounts will be referred to our debt collection department and further charges will be levied in respect of costs incurred collecting the debt (these included but are not limited to the production of reports, correspondence, court fees, attendace at court, phone calls, home visits etc)
Any cheque returned by our bank as unpaid, any credit card payment not honoured and any cash tendered that is found to be counterfeit will result in the original account being restored to the original sum with further charges added in respect of bank charges and administration costs.
All visits not cancelled before the vet arrives on farm will be charged for.
Out of Hours policy
Should your animal require Veterinary attention outside of surgery hours, we provide 24hr Emergency Veterinary cover.
Prescription Policy
We can only provide prescription medications for animals under our care. This means that the Veterinary Surgeon has to examine your animal before dispensing medication. The frequency of repeat medication reviews is at the discretion of the vet.
General
Fenton Vets may contact you either by letter, phone, text or electronic means in order to advise you of an outstanding account, treatments and any marketing offers that might be of benefit to you or you. Please inform us if you wish no contact to be made. However, please be aware that this will remove the ability of the Practice to send any beneficial communications.
Reminders are provided as a complimentary service to our clients. Fenton Vets accept no liability for any loss, damages or costs which may result from the failure of a client to receive any reminder.
No addition or variation of these conditions will bind the practice unless it is specifically agreed in writing and signed by a Director. No agent or person employed by, or under contract with Fenton Veterinary Practice has the authority to alter or vary these conditions in any way.
Complaints and Standards
Fenton Veterinary Practice is committed to providing an exceptional standard of service and care. Fenton Veterinary Practice provides ongoing training to it’s staff regarding all aspects of companion animal practice.
We realise however that things can sometimes go wrong and there may be occasions when you feel your expectations were not met. When this happens we want to hear about it so that we can try to put things right.
Most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and directly with the person concerned.
If your complaint cannot be resolved, you should then write to us, your complaint will be handled by the Practice Manager who will either, contact you, correspond with you or meet with you as appropriate to the complaint.
A Guide to Making A Complaint
We hope that before you complain formally you will give the Practice a chance to put things right. Most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way, and you wish to make a formal complaint, we would like you to let us know in writing as soon as possible – ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. Regretfully, we are unable to investigate complaints made more than 6 months after the event.
Please include the following to assist us in investigating the problem.
Why – the nature of the complaint/problem
When the problem occurred
Who – Which staff were involved
What you are hoping for as an outcome
Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager Mrs A. Francis
What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receipt, informing you who is dealing with your complaint and when you can expect to receive a reply. In most cases we hope to give you a full reply within fifteen working days but if it is going to take longer, we will get in touch with you to let you know what is happening. We will then be in a position to offer you an explanation, and /or the results of our investigation.
When we look into your complaint, we will aim to:
Find out what happened and what went wrong
Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.
What to do if you are still unhappy
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and is an opportunity to improve our practice. This does not affect your right to approach the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons if you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.
