Laurice was a much loved cat. He lived with his sibling Hugo, a blind dachshund Charlie and a disabled Maine Coon. His loss has been felt greatly. 

Everyone that has left a comment, thank you so much. We are almost at the first 500 signatures, but such a long way to go. 

I wrote to my OLD vet practice today to ask them some questions. I await there response. The letter is below:

Dear Laura, 

Thank you for your somewhat curt reply. As you can imagine the last 12 days have been hard enough, without your sarcastic undertones. I would expect a higher level of professionalism from the so called Director. 

Yesterday we had to collect Laurices ashes, on the way home I received a call from your debt office. Seeing as I still have a variety of questions to put to you, I have asked them to kindly call back. 

Please answer each question. As the answers are important to myself. 

1. You claimed that food was put into Laurices cage at all times. Why was the Bisolvon not prescribed until the 12th. Surely this should have been an instant on admission? 

2. The hospital fee is £150 per 12 hours. So £300 a day. Then a further £150 per day for a vet to approach the cage. The staff employed are on a salary, Vets are given £75k per annum. Plus considerable perks. Understandable considering the training they undertake etc, but why is it more expensive for an already admitted patient to see a vet? Surely seeing as there is a hospital fee etc, the vet fee should be less than a consultation? 

3. This point has me in complete disbelief. £54.98 for fluid therapy. I know what a quick job this is, as being an ex nurse myself, plus I’ve also had several IV fluids myself. This would’ve been carried out by a Nurse, not a vet, I mean the simple task could even be undertaken by a receptionist. I’ve looked online and a 500ml bag is around £3.00, why is this lifeline so damn expensive? Can you justify this please. 

4. To insert Laurices IV line you charged £184.99 (bearing in mind once again we are already paying for the inpatient fee, the vet attending fee), can you break this extortionate cost down please? More on this in question 5. 

5. Because Laurice had his IV line in-situ. His euthanisa was charged at £67. £184.99 + £67 = £251.99. I rang the practice the following day to enquire about cat euthanasia. Your cost is £170. Why is there an £81.99 mark up on the IV line? He is after all already an in patient. I had an elderly cat euthanised at your practice in July 2021. Just over three years ago. The cost was £78.98 including the IV line required. There is inflation of course. But your prices seem way above the cost of inflation. 

6. Yesterday I took it upon myself to ring 3 different practices, all owned by the corporate thieves - IVC EVIDENSIA. The findings were quite astounding. 
Cat euthanasia in London at one of their state of the art hospitals £150. Bradley Stoke £160. Blaise hospital in Birmingham only euthanise cats in an emergency out of hours. They were extortionate, although their out of hours charge is considerably lower than yours. £498.50 including the out of hours fee. Please can you explain why you are so expensive, and why you think that it’s ok to overcharge people who are already emotionally vulnerable? You told me the prices weren’t set by you, they were centralised. Phone calls have proved this not to be true. So even though you told me it’s a code entered in the system. The prices must be set by each individual practice? 

A complaint I also have was the insensitivity shown on the day Laurice was euthanised. The candles were not lit in reception. We had to walk through a busy reception sobbing, carrying our dead cat. As people laughed and chatted in reception, including the reception staff. Three years ago after we lost our beloved Archie. We received a sympathy card in the post. That was a lovely touch. Do you guys really care so little now? Would that eat into your huge profits far too much? 

I look forward to hearing your responses, which I shall of course mull over and be in touch. 

Regards

Lesley Godwin

 

I await their response. Don’t get me wrong vets deserve to be well paid. They train for seven years. They are NOT the problem. It’s the huge global companies offering obscene amounts of money to independent practices. The UK branch of IVC EVIDENSIA made £1 billion pounds profit. That was after all their overheads, wages etc. 

I will not give up the fight to try and get veterinary care regulated fairly in the UK. I have to fight this cause in the name of Laurice and all the other animals receiving poor levels of care because the costs WITHOUT ANY TREATMENT are astronomical.

Please keep sharing, you are all very special to me.  I will be contacting the press. Every single pet owner, farmer, equestrian, exotics owner is affected. 

PLEASE HELP ME WIN THE BATTLE ❤️❤️❤️