Panorama-It shouldnt happen at a Vets...

The girl givig the anasthetic gave more without checking with the vet first the breathing tube also came out during the procedure.

swearing at the animals and silly school girl behaviour, not very professional was it?
How would you feel if your dog had cancer and you were not told and encouraged to have expensive and unneccessay treatment.
Dont think the vet was struck off for nothing.
 
Quote from the Medivet Website....

Panorama – Medivet responds


‘It shouldn’t happen at a vets’ – Panorama 22 July 2010



We are shocked and appalled at the behaviour of a few of our staff, and wish to apologise unreservedly for this. We have immediately suspended a number of staff shown in the programme to have behaved unacceptably, and disciplinary procedures will follow. This will include reporting possible professional misconduct to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

A panel of enquiry, including independent expertise, is being set up to investigate all the issues raised in the programme, and will work closely with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. It will conduct a full root and branch review of the group, and make recommendations on internal supervision, management, technical procedures and corporate culture.

Medivet is committed to learning all the right lessons so that the failings exposed by the programme are not repeated.

A detailed commentary on the individual issues raised in the programme will be posted on the Medivet website shortly.
 
I agree with much of what Farrierlover has already said.
It was clear from the programme that staff needed training and that more supervision was necessary.

The incident with the partially sedated cat turned my stomach. The dog should not have been hit and the inexperienced staff who were not being properly supervised should never be allowed to administer an anaethetic.

Those in charge of Medivet were completely dishonest :mad:
 
Farrierlover said:
I do wonder that the girl worked there for 9 months and this was all the "abuse" that she saw? The setter was restrained incorrectly, he should have been held from the other side with no pressure on his throat although I doubt very much that the rather inept way he was being held would have damaged him in any way. He was obviously stressed at being there anyway, I really don't think he would have settled for the canula to be placed. When you are a student nurse you get taught to place iv lines, give i-m and sub-q injections, thoroughly clean a surgery and then once you are ok with that you are told to do it (there are always vets and qualified nurses around but they are often busy with more important procedures), if you are unable or unwilling to carry on you simply tell your supervisor.

How else is a trainee meant to learn to do the procedures? From a book? In an exam on a cuddly toy?

The shar pei and some of the cat scruffing looked unpleasant I must say and although there is no excuse for using violence on an animal, you don't know the background. What I mean is, the damage that an upset/angry cat/dog can and WILL do to someone has to be seen to be believed.

Also- an unqualified person administering anaesthetic? Happens all the time, the animals are checked over prior, weighed and should have a pre-ga blood test to ensure that they are working correctly. The correct dosage is worked out and a "safe as you can get" anaesthetic is used. It really does not matter who gives the injection as long as they know what they are doing (ie, not your local binman or cat breeder). Does anyone think the vets were upstairs having a coffee break when this was going on?

As you can probably tell, it made me rather cross.
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Dont speak for us all thank you very much!!! Also- an unqualified person administering anaesthetic? Happens all the time! Not at my practice, it is illegal and if your not a vet you shouldnt be doing it and as a nurse if you are asked to do it you should say NO - get a back bone!!!!

Student nurses - registered under the RCVS should be properly supervised at all times and thats how they learn, not bu being shown what an iv catheter looks like and being half arsedly shown how to place it!!!! Disgusting, i hope the ones in question are ashamed of themselves for bringing down our profession!!!
 
michelleice said:
Didn't watch it as well after watching a dairy undercover i cant watch anything like that as well the clip was horrid! and brought tears to my eyes and i dont even like cows!

medivet have this on there website

http://www.medivet.co.uk/news_view.asp?id=115
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Well some of what theyre saying isnt true,one of the staff (who hated that dog and hit it ) he was made a manager or something at another practice,Some suspention!!!
Full of bull!!!!

Disgusting behaviuor and thank goodness the animals all survived.
 
I haven't watched the programme yet.....lunchtime on iplayer jobby! :D

However, I agree with alot of what FarrierLover has said. I actually 'man-handled' a cat IN-FRONT of the owners the other day!!

I scruffed it and pinned it to the table. This is because it had already caused some horrific wounds on both the vet and on me and it needed to be sedated urgently to have an X-ray. God knows what you would all think of me if you saw me cut my cat's nails. It involves two people, a towel and ALOT of meowing!

There are some interesting comments on here....I look forward to watching the programme!
 
OK just watched it on i player sorry i dont think ill trust vets fully now, not saying there all like that but unfortunately its the bad ones who bring the good ones down with them!

I'm truly shocked at it all especially the behaviour with the cat under anesthesia how could you treat a animal like that then say i would go mental if this was my animal?!!
 
Hollycat said:
If it was your child in a private hospital and they told you to get the money or they refused to release your child would you be happy? Or would you rather the child suffered in pain until you stumped up before they would admit the child?

Say what you like but some of us consider our pets as our kids and don't take well to being bullied.
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I couldn't have kids at one point (7 years I tried and thank god every day that I have one now) I went through years of pain with miscarriges etc and my animals were and still are my babies but I have never ever left a vet surgery without paying my bill in full - no matter how well I knew the vet and believe me I know my vet very well! I had an average salary but always made sure I had the money for unforseen expenses - even if it ment using a credit card etc. If I couldn't afford treatment for my animals I wouldn't have them. If you pay on time there is more chance that the vet can afford to keep fees low but if they are waiting for money to come and they still have wages, bills etc to pay its more likely they have to put their fees up to cover the ones who haven't paid!
 
itsme123 said:
It's a LIVING BREATHING animal NOT a sack of potatoes!

Personally (I don't know about the other posters) I had held my account for years. I have 10 animals, and I'm a typical paranoid pet owner, one sniffle and my pets are at the vets.
They KNEW me. They treated my ponies, my cats, my dogs...

They tried to with hold my 12 week old puppy, AFTER it had been made blatantly clear that if I hadn't insisted on coming to visit her they would have screwed a few days extra money out of me. They humiliated me in front of other clients.


I also expect my animals to be cared for by people wearing correct clothing (ie aprons to prevent the spread of disease), and God forbid, shoes and socks....
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I agree its not a sack of potatoes but you pay for a service and once you have had it you pay! To be able to offer staged payments and payments at a later date you should have a credit licence a lot of vets don't have this facility! However it sounds like the service was -pretty *hit! There is no way you should be humiliated in front of other clients and no way they should have kept your puppy in if it was ready to go home just to extract more cash out of you - hope you have changed your vets now!
 
anadain said:
I agree its not a sack of potatoes but you pay for a service and once you have had it you pay! To be able to offer staged payments and payments at a later date you should have a credit licence a lot of vets don't have this facility!
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I have to agree. You would be very suprised to see just how much vet surgeries lose from non-payment/late payment of fees. One equine vet I worked with said that he lost approx £30k a year from this :eek:

I am often skint and have to stagger payments but I think that the key is to speak to the vet BEFORE they perform any procedures. My equine vet has a standard 28 days to pay but will make arrangements for larger bills. I have worked at vets before who are fine about payment plans etc. However the vet I work with now does not accept anything other than payment upon collection of the animal and there are signs up in the reception to this effect. Obviously they would not refuse to treat an emergency because of money worries however the vet has sent non-urgent cases to PDSA.

It sounds harsh but it is a one-vet practice with huge overheads and bills need to be paid. It is a business after all.
 
MontyandZoom said:
I have to agree. You would be very suprised to see just how much vet surgeries lose from non-payment/late payment of fees. One equine vet I worked with said that he lost approx £30k a year from this :eek:

I am often skint and have to stagger payments but I think that the key is to speak to the vet BEFORE they perform any procedures. My equine vet has a standard 28 days to pay but will make arrangements for larger bills. I have worked at vets before who are fine about payment plans etc. However the vet I work with now does not accept anything other than payment upon collection of the animal and there are signs up in the reception to this effect. Obviously they would not refuse to treat an emergency because of money worries however the vet has sent non-urgent cases to PDSA.

It sounds harsh but it is a one-vet practice with huge overheads and bills need to be paid. It is a business after all.
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I actually DO agree, for new clients.

Does your vet refuse to hand the animal over if payment is not made in full on the day? If so, what do they do with the animal?

In my instance, I had the cash, but only through good fortune. But I could not get it all that night. I was stood there, my mouth gaping squeaking "please? can I have my puppy back?"
I have insurance for big vets bills and a small amount of savings for small bills and more routine things.
 
I would suggest that its probably the older more regular clients that take advantage and are the worst at paying, why would you not be expecting to pay in full? I think most vets have learnt from their previous mistakes (and monies lost) and hence really do want your money before you leave.
 
itsme123 said:
Does your vet refuse to hand the animal over if payment is not made in full on the day? If so, what do they do with the animal?
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Fortunately this has only happened once when I have been there but yes, the client did have to return with a credit card to pay before the dog could be taken home. To be honest I don't know what we would do since the dog surely couldn't be left post-op in the surgery alone overnight??

Our out of hours is covered by another practice so it's not something that is usually a problem. The payment issue is always explained when the animal is dropped off in the morning before surgery so there is no misunderstandings, we rarely have emergency surgeries as these are handled by our OOH practice.

I think that there should definately be something in place for things like if it is a previous client. This is one aspect I am not looking forward to when I qualify.

A good friend who is newly qualified was called out at 10pm to a horse that had gone through a barbed wire fence and needed lots of stitches. They were not registered at the surgery and they said they didn't have the cash on them to pay. The next day the senior vet told her off and made her call the clients to demand the cash. They paid after 4 days......which I think is totally reasonable. What was she meant to do?? Leave the horse with it's chest hanging open??!!
 
bryngelenponies said:
Is anyone else shocked and disgusted that Medivets gets their blood from a greyhound rescue free of charge in exchange for free food/occasional worming etc? I'm in support of pets donating blood for a good cause if their owners agree to it but there's something wrong with taking blood from rescue dogs who have no owners to look out for them at that time...maybe it's just me :confused:
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Yes me, the whole thing made me feel uncomfortable and like they were exploiting the poor animals for a profit!
 
Sorry, I'd just like to defend myself here as I don't feel you're being fair.

I pay £250 (or round-about) a year at the beginning of each year for insurance for my dog. She is covered for life and has £5000 cover per incident per year on each illness/injury. The cover for life means its not excluded next time round (i.e. if her joints were shot, they'd still pay next year).

The reason I pay this insurance fee is because I only ever earn at max £250 a week. My dog is my baby and I would NEVER let her suffer. I choose to insure with NFU because they pay up extremely quickly and never mess us or the vets around.

The reason I object is because I would NEVER be able to stump up the cash if it was enough for me to consider the insurance claim route. Clearly I have parents etc that would lend me the money, BUT if she got hit by a car would I have that money instantly? No, it'd take 3 days to transfer or whatever. The only amount of cash I have readily accessible is the £50 excess. If I could afford to have £4999 sat in my bank account ready to spend like that, then I wouldnt pay the insurance!!

And if they tell me to go elsewhere, I will do!

The laughable thing is that they have introduced a rule now that means if you pay £15 extra, you don't have to pay up! Like £15 is going to stop anyone! So now I just have £65 sat in an emergency bank account, instead of £50.
 
Misinterpreted said:
I watched parts of the programme. I must say, it made for very distressing viewing and I couldn't bear to watch too much. I'm glad I'm not with Medivet.
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But is every Medivet centre like those on the programme?
There was some very bad practice shown to say the least, but maybe other centres are different. Dont tar them all with the same brush. If you the client are unsure, ask, pester find out for the sake of your pets.
I have no connection with the company, I am the wrong end of the country. If bad practice is stamped out because of this programme, good but dont forget the majority of vets and vet nurses are concerned about their clients.
 
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