- Have you ever paid too much for your pet’s medicine? Email: [email protected]
Pet owners may be overpaying vets for their animal’s medicine, prescriptions and care, the competition watchdog has warned.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) received an ‘unprecedented’ 56,000 responses to their review and decided to ‘provisionally’ launch a market investigation into the veterinary sector.
The review found that consumers may not be given enough information – including price lists – to enable them to choose the best practice and treatment for their pet.
It also found that the regulatory framework for the sector is ‘outdated’ and ‘may no longer be fit for purpose’ and that there may be an over-concentration of veterinary ownership in certain areas.
And those working in the sector – which is worth £2billion after the covid pandemic saw pet ownership rise to two-thirds of British households – have raised concerns about the pressures arising from shortages to the staff.
Have you ever paid too much for your pet’s medicine? Email: [email protected]
The market investigation, if the findings are upheld, will give the CMA the power to force companies to give consumers their full list of prices, impose limits on costs for things like fees to prescription and potentially enforce the sale of businesses in areas of excessive concentration of ownership.
It revealed that 80% of veterinary practices surveyed by the watchdog did not have online pricing – even for the most basic services.
Veterinarians are required to use signs in their reception or treatment rooms telling customers they can pick up their prescriptions elsewhere.
However, the CMA’s analysis found that 25 per cent of pet owners didn’t know it was an option – meaning they could be missing out on savings.
CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said they launched the review in September because the veterinary sector is a ‘critical market’ for the UK’s 16 million pet owners.
He said: ‘The unprecedented response we have received from the public and veterinary professionals shows the strength of feeling on this issue is high and why we are right to look at it.
‘We have heard concerns from those working in the sector about the pressures they face, including acute staff shortages, and the impact this has on individual professionals. ‘
Ms Cardell added that the competition watchdog had taken the ‘temporary decision’ to launch a market investigation because of concerns for consumers raised by the review.
‘But our analysis has identified a number of concerns in the market that we think should be investigated further,’ he said.
‘This includes pet owners struggling to access basic information such as price lists and prescription costs – and possible overpayments for medicines.
‘We are also concerned about weak competition in some areas, driven in part by sector consolidation, and the incentives for large corporate groups to act in ways that may reduce competition and choice.
‘Given these strong indications of potential concern, it is time to put our work on a formal status. We have provisionally decided to launch a market investigation as that is the quickest route to enable us to take direct action, if necessary.’
Previously, a dog owner said he would sell his house to pay a £20,000 vet bill.
Last year, Jaxon Feeley said his two-year-old Weimaraner named Rambo went into hypovolemic shock — a state in which severe loss of blood or other fluids makes the heart unable to pump enough blood. blood in the body.
Mr Feeley, from Wigan, said: ‘He started vomiting throughout the night more than 30 times and by Saturday morning we were at the emergency vet.’
In addition to the condition, Rambo also developed stomach flu, or gastroenteritis, and his health declined rapidly.
Have you ever paid too much for your pet’s medicine? Email: [email protected]
