Reforms must be fair to vets and pet owners | Letters

Letters Reforms must be fair to vets and pet owners Readers respond to an editorial on the UK competition watchdog’s investigation of vet chains and the cost of treatment The Competition and Markets Authority report on vet chains is welcome, but your editorial ( 24 March ) does little to clarify things for struggling pet owners. The remedies include a further levy of between £600 and £1,000 per year, to be paid by practices to the regulator. This represents an increase of approximately 5% in our small independent referral practice, and will necessarily lead to increased prices, which have been displayed on our website since opening. Reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 may lead to similar rising costs. Current median salaries for veterinary surgeons are less than those of teachers and nurses . While pet owners may wish that care was cheaper, they also depend on it being available. Veterinary qualifications involve a minimum of five years’ undergraduate training, without the benefits of clinical years bursaries offered to doctors and dentists. If society deems affordable veterinary care to be essential, it needs to support the sector, as many practices make profit margins more similar to pubs than corporations. Bills could instantly be reduced by 20% if the government removed VAT (which is not charged on private human medicine). If society demands a public good, who should be the ones paying? Individual vets and nurses already contribute more than their fair share. Dr James Hunt Pet Pain Relief, Dulverton, Somerset Your editorial on the veterinary sector rightly highlights concerns around pricing, transparency and corporate ownership. However, there is a risk that the focus on cost overlooks a more fundamental issue: whether appropriate care is available at all. The proposed closure of Great Western Exotics in Swindon, a specialist referral hospital owned by IVC Evidensia and operated through Vets Now, illustrates this gap. Although the closure has now been del...