Compalints against a veterinary practice

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Manal82

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Hi Everyone,

Does anyone have any experience of the above??? I’m just looking for some general advice and peoples own experiences.

I'm in the process of lodging my complaint with my previous practice in relation to a professional negligence claim, I will also be registering this with the RCVS and I’m in talks with my solicitor.

Just wanted to get some views on peoples own experiences with this type of process, any help or advice would be gratefully received :-)
 
Just be prepared to lose friends and possibly have to move yards etc. Several years ago I sued myt hen vet and won but had to leave the yard I had worked at for several years because it became unbearable. My true friends stood by me but plenty of others supported me until I won and then when their local dodgy vet was found negligent they turned against me. He was eventually sturck off for something else and now i beleive has a practice in France. But and this is a big but if you feel that strongly about it do it but if you have never been to court and had to stand up and be questioned be prepared it's not v nice.

good luck what ever you decide
 
Hi Scotia,

Thank you for your reply!! I’m fully prepared for what you described thankfully I'm pretty think skinned.

I'm just so angry, not only at the fact that they made this mistake but at what it has cost me and the whole yard. The made a mistake, which I appreciate happens but it’s the way that they have continued to deal with the whole issue.

I think the majority of our yard has now switched vets but it's the principle of the matter more than anything.

Both of my mares have now suffered, one considerably more than the other.

Oh well, rant over :-)

Thanks again for the response.
 
I have tried to raise it with the practice but unfortunately I haven’t got very far. Hence I'm putting my complaint in writing to see if that gets me any further.

Professional negligence is the complaint due to the wrong diagnosis of 5 horses with a highly infectious disease. This resulted in a whole yard being quarantined. The possible host went undiagnosed for approximately 6 weeks after at least 3 possibly 4 visits form the vet.

I'm not annoyed that they've had it as that can happen anywhere. I'm unhappy at how the whole situation was handled and the fact that it took them that long to test for it.
When it was suggested that this may be what one of my mares was suffering from I was told it definitely was not this and no bloods/swabs were taken.
 
would guess from your above post that it was strangles or similar? best to put your gripes in written form! to practise and /rcvs, and most conditions have an incubation period which will be the wriggle clause.
 
You could argue that the original possible host had a multitude of underlying respiratory conditions, that the owners of said animal were a little less forthcoming about the history of the animal's health leading up to this episode and the fact that none of the animals showed classic symptoms in the first place.

And a straw poll of the yard would find only a handful of people have changed vets due to this episode. Strangles is rife in the area at the moment and unfortunately things like this will happen.
 
Manal82 said:
This resulted in a whole yard being quarantined.
Click to expand...

Surely that is the correct course of action if it was Strangles, which is what you seem to be alluding to?

Did any horses die?

If not, maybe you should be thanking the vet, not looking to discredit him.
 
Please don't get me wrong as I completely agree with the yard being quarintined. That was 100% the right thing to do but, im my opinion, this should've been done much sooner than it was.

My issue is, as desrcibed, is regarding the misdiagnosis of the initial symptoms, in my horses. As detailed in the initial post all I'm looking for is peoples past experiences with this type of situation.

I so agree 100% that diseases is rife in the area, however as said in a previous post I'm not complainong that they've had it but at the handling of the situation.

At the end of the day everyone will have there own opionion and take there own course of action, if any.

Thanks for the input :-)
 
I don't think it is up to the vets to quarantine anything - Strangles is not a notifiable disease and it can be hard to diagnose especially if the symptoms are not classic. If it was so obvious what it was from the beginning surely the YO should have put steps in to quarantine individuals and the yard? If it was not obvious then I think its unlikely that your claim would be successful. By the time horses show symptoms most of the yard would probably have been exposed anyway. Some horses shed the virus and have no symptoms at all.

On a yard I was previously on the range of symptoms form horse to horse was from None - slight runny nose - abcess under jaw - full basterd strangles where abcesses appear internally. (they all survived)

My personal exeperience - Having looked into taking action against a vet for a 5-stage vetting which imo should have shown the problem my horse had - personally it just wasn't worth the emotional trauma of dragging it on and on. The RCVS were totally unhelpful.

It was easier in the end to just move on and leave it behind even though it cost me a lot of money (luckily I had LOU) and eventually the horse which no money could replace.

You may be angry now but do think about what at the end of the day you have really suffered or lost? and whether going any further with this is worth future sleepless nights and worry and money which you may never get back? For me it wasn't worth it.

Anyway hope all your horses and the other horses are now fully recovered.
 
Well I know of a big livery yard in Kent that has it.......

Unfortunately diagnosing Strangles is not cut and dried; even with swabbing and bloods you can get false negative results.

And it's not the job of vets to quarantine yards
 
Thankfully are YO has been really good and and as soon as this was mentioned he quarintined the yard.

Appreciate it's not straight forward to diagnose hence why I'm taking my time with this matter. Don't want to go into too much detail regarding the particulars but do appreciate everyones comments and feedback.
 
I can see why you would be infuriated, and don't know whether legally you have a case or not, but taking any kind of medical negligence case is expensive, stressful and the odds are stacked against the individual.

Your vet will be insured for litigation, and his legal bills will be a matter for his insurance company. You won't get any legal aid, assuming you qualify, and it could run to thousands and thousands of pounds.

I work in a related field and have seen people totally ruin their lives by becoming obsessed with medical negligence claims, and personally I think that since your horses have survived you should perhaps think about swallowing the anger (I know, I know) and just moving on ... don't let this vet do you any more harm.

Not to say I don't think you are morally right, but often moral right and legal right are not the same thing and I can't imagine you want to spend the next two years and potentially tens of thousands of pounds on a case which you might not win and in which even if you did the monetary gain would be tiny ...

I don't know, but is there a not vet equivalent of the British Medical Association which investigates public complaints against vets? If so this would be free, and would at least mean that an independent expert would take a look at what was and wasn't done and you'd get some closure without having to write a big fat cheque. But you might find they side with the vet, and you'd have to be ready to accept that.

Good luck.
 
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