16/10/2025
The CMA has published its provisional decision on the market investigation into veterinary services for household pets, which has identified a number of concerns around the lack of strong competition between veterinary businesses, including a lack of transparency for pet owners regarding many veterinary costs and services, insufficient information around ownership of practices, and confirmed what was blatantly obvious for most of us in the profession for a long time: the current Veterinary Surgeons Act dating back to 1966 is outdated and not fit for purpose for many reasons. (Did you know that in the UK individual vets are regulated, but veterinary businesses themselves are not?)
We are very proud that addressing the above issues have been among our primary objectives ever since we opened nearly 5 years ago.
We nurture these values and promote these standards in as many ways as we can, such as:
-publishing a comprehensive list of services and fees on our website
-including IV fluids, pain relief to go home, additional local and epidural anaesthesia, dental X-rays, and much more with procedures as standard, rather than selling them as "optional extras"
-taking the time to examine our patients and listen to their owners to tailor treatment plans to both of their individual needs
Hopefully these findings will bring positive change in the lives of many pets and owners, but also the many people working in the profession, demanding change so that care and compassion could be at least as important as benchmarks and profit margins. 💜🐶🐢🐱🦜🐰🩵
