Vet 2 Cat

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Competitions and Markets Authority review into the veterinary industry

You may have seen news articles about the CMA’s investigation into the veterinary sector. This began in Sept 2023 and is due to be finalised in November 2025.

The CMA is responsible for promoting competition and preventing anti-competitive practices within business sectors.

They have highlighted several concerns within the industry; which essentially boils down to transparency in terms of pricing, practice ownership and what the pet owners’ options are for treatment of their pet.

Here is a highlight of what Vet2Cat is doing (and has always done) with regard to the main concerns;

  • Our main fees are provided on our website and are updated promptly. The CMA found over 80% of vet practices did not provide the fees on their websites.
  • We always go over expected costs for diagnostic testing or recommended operations/dentals.
  • If unaffordable, we will always try to find you a cheaper solution, but bear in mind that sometimes that option may be euthanasia.
  • The CMA found almost 60% of vet practices are owned by one of six large corporate groups, but often maintain the identity of the original independent practice when purchased. This gives consumers the illusion of having more choice in the practice they choose to attend. Vet2Cat is an independent practice, solely owned by Claire Zentveld.
  • The CMA found that some of the large corporate groups’ medicine sales make up to 25% of their total revenue. Vet2Cat’s revenue from sales of medicines is 15%. Yes we do put a mark-up on drugs, this is to cover the costs of subscriptions required to be a vet practice, administrative time of stock control and temperature regulation recording, insurance of the stock, disposal fees and loss of expired products, and fees for inspections by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. Claire has always felt strongly that our fees should be made from our professional services, not hidden charges. Our mark-up on drugs varies according to the cost of the drug and if it is expected to expire before fully used. At most this is 50%, and as low as 10% for high-cost drugs. We openly advise our clients about purchasing from online pharmacies using a written prescription charged at £18.50 to cover up to a six-month supply, or 12 months for parasiticides.
  • We charge a dispensing fee for medicines we provide to you directly. This is £9 for most medicines except parasiticides which is only £3. This fee is to cover materials (bottles, envelopes, labels) and the time taken to dispense and explain the medicine to you and to administrate on our software.
  • By the same reasoning, Vet2Cat does not add any mark-up to external laboratory fees, (some practices mark up to 100%) but instead charges for our time and skill to obtain the samples, to interpret the results and fully discuss them with you.