TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF
BUSINESS
1st November
2011
Thank you for entrusting the care and attention of your
pet or other animal to the Highcliff Veterinary Practice.
This letter details our Practice Terms and Conditions. Some
aspects of the Terms may not be relevant to you and we request that
you ask for further explanation/clarification if required.
FEES
All fees, diets and drug charges are subject to VAT. You will
receive a detailed fee note for every consultation, surgical
procedure or transaction with us.
PROVISION OF PRESCRIPTIONS
Prescriptions are available from this practice. You may
obtain Prescription Only Medicines, Category V (POM-Vs)
from your veterinary surgeon OR ask for a prescription and
obtain these medicines from another veterinary surgeon
or a pharmacy.
Your veterinary surgeon may prescribe POM-Vs only
for animals under his or her care.
* A
prescription may not be appropriate if your animal is an in-patient
or immediate treatment is necessary.
* You will
be informed, on request, of the price of any medicine that may be
prescribed for your animal.
* The
general policy of this practice is to re-assess an animal requiring
repeat prescriptions every 3 months, but this may
vary with the individual circumstances. There is a standard
charge for re-examination.
METHODS OF PAYMENT
Small animal clients: Accounts
are due for settlement at the end of the consultation, the
discharge of your pet or upon collection of drugs/diets. You
may settle the account using:
- CASH
- DEBIT/CREDIT CARD - e.g. Maestro, Solo, Mastercard, Visa,
Delta, American Express
Should any payment be returned by our bank then an
administrative fee, currently £5.00, will be charged.
Equine/large animal
clients: If account facilities have
been agreed, payment is due as outlined below.
ESTIMATES OF TREATMENT COSTS
We will happily provide a written estimate as to the probable
costs of a course of treatment. Please bear in mind that any
estimate given can only be approximate - often an animal's illness
will not follow a conventional course.
SETTLEMENT TERMS
Small animal clients:
We do not offer account facilities and clients are asked to pay at
the time of treatment in order to keep costs as low as
possible. We reserve the right to take debit/credit card
details in advance.
Should an account not be settled within 14 days, then a reminder
will be sent. If payment has not been received by
30 days then an additional accounting fee, currently £5.00, will
be charged in respect of administrative costs incurred.
Should it be necessary for further reminders to be sent, interest
will be charged after 45 days at 4.5% per annum above Barclays'
base rate.
Equine/large animal
clients: We offer account facilities
and payment is expected within 30 days from the date of
invoice.
Should an account not be settled within 30 days, then a reminder
will be sent. If payment has not been received by 60 days
then an additional accounting fee, currently £5.00, will be charged
in respect of administrative costs incurred. Should it be
necessary for further reminders to be sent, interest will be
charged after 60 days at 4.5% per annum above Barclays' annual base
rate.
For all clients, these additional charges may, however, be
deducted if payment is made promptly i.e. within seven days and
only at the discretion of a Partner or the Practice
Manager.
After due notice to you the client, overdue accounts will be
referred to our Debt Collection Agency and further charges will be
levied in respect of costs incurred in collecting the debt: such as
production of reports, correspondence, court fees, attendance at
court, phone calls, home visits, etc. You will appreciate
that such action may cause your credit worthiness to be questioned
elsewhere. If we do have to resort to sending the debt to our
Agency, then we will not be able to act for you in the future and
we will have to give two weeks notice accordingly. We would
then be able to offer no further treatment to your pet or any other
animals.
Any cheque returned by our Bank as unpaid, any Credit Card
payment not honoured and any cash tendered that is found to be
counterfeit will result in the original account being restored to
the original sum with a further charge, currently £5.00, being
added in respect of bank charges and administrative costs together
with interest on the principal sum.
Referral cases: If we
need to refer any cases to an external centre then payment is due
directly to that centre. This would be made at the time of
treatment or on terms agreed with that organisation.
REFERENCES
Equine/large animal clients: We
reserve the right to request references to confirm reliability of
payment and to define a credit limit.
INABILITY TO PAY
If, for any reason, you are unable to settle your account as
specified, we ask you to discuss the matter as soon as possible
with a member of staff. Please note that instalments or
part-payments of any account may ONLY be sanctioned with the
express permission of a Partner or the Practice Manager. In
exceptional circumstances only, you would be offered a payment plan
and you would be expected to set up a monthly direct debit through
your bank. An alternative payment method would be by monthly
payment on a debit/credit card.
If you default on the payment agreement arranged, we would
remind you after 30 days and expect payments to be re-established
within seven days. If not, then the account would be
submitted to our Debt Collection Agency and the above settlement
terms, with notice of withdrawal of further treatment, would
apply.
HEALTH INSURANCE
Highcliff Veterinary Practice strongly supports the principle of
insuring your pet or other animals against unexpected illness or
accidents. Please ask for details about insurance from any
member of staff.
If you are already insured we would be pleased to discuss with
you the level of insurance taken out and the specific cover
available to you. This is particularly important in relation to any
cases that may require referral e.g. to Rossdales of Newmarket for
equine clients.
Please be aware that it is your
responsibility to settle our account on our normal settlement terms
and then reclaim the fees from your Insurance Company. If the
case has been referred to an external centre then payment is due
directly to that centre. This would be made at the time of
treatment or on terms agreed with that
organisation.
COMPLAINTS & STANDARDS
We hope that you never have recourse to complain about the
standards of service received from the Highcliff Veterinary
Practice. However there may be a specific problem which you
wish to discuss or an area where you feel we could improve our
service to you. If this is the case, please direct your
comments in the first instance to the Practice Manager and the
matter will be investigated quickly.
OWNERSHIP OF RADIOGRAPHS AND OTHER RECORDS
The care given to your animal may involve making some specific
investigations, for example taking radiographs, ECG or performing
ultrasound scans. Even though we make a charge for carrying
out these investigations and interpreting their results, ownership
of the resulting record, for example a radiograph, remains with
Highcliff Veterinary Practice. Copies, with a summary of the
history, will be passed on request to another Veterinary Surgeon
taking over the case.
No addition or variation of these conditions will
bind the practice unless it is specifically agreed in writing and
signed by one of the practice partners. No agent or person
employed by, or under contract with, the practice has the authority
to alter or vary these conditions in any
way.
