The Fine Print…

Payment
In order to keep our fees as low as possible, we require payment at the time of consultation. We accept cash and debit or credit cards but not cheques.

Finance for large bills
No veterinary practice can legally provide payment schemes for their clients as we are not a financial institution.

Insurance claims
As we are generally not allowed to speak with insurance companies for data protection reasons, we expect you to settle your account at the time of services and/or goods being provided and then claim back from the insurance company. We will do all we can to facilitate a rapid and successful claim but we do not have a specific time period which applies to the forms. If you are having difficulty with your insurer, we may ask you to give permission for them to speak with us. While we do not charge for filling out insurance claim forms, this is a complimentary service, not a right.

Records
Due to legislation, patient records, radiographs, laboratory reports and ecg need to be kept on site for 7 years and remain the property of Blackwater Vets. We will provide reports or copies for any specialists or other veterinary institutions . We expect the outstanding balance to be settled before. 

GDPR
Blackwater vets stores your data securely on site, although we do back up the same data securely to the cloud to ensure up to date medical records and contact details can be accessed in the event that the premises are destroyed. This data is heavily encrypted to avoid breach of data, but can be accessed securely by our software provider with whom we have a confidentiality agreement with.

We do not store any financial data.

Should there be a breach, or a suspected breach concerning your data, you will be contacted and informed.

From time to time we might receive a request for your data for the purposes of referral, insurance claims or transferring to another vet. Should we receive such a request, we will seek your verbal permission before transferring any data related to you.

Therapeutic monitoring
in order to comply with best practice procedures, patients on long term therapy and/or medications need to be examined at least in 6 month intervals. A consultation fee will be charged at this time. Serious conditions may require more frequent examinations for the benefit of the patient and will be discussed with the client.

Repeat prescriptions
please allow 24-48 hours for us to fill a repeat prescription. Products not normally kept in stock must be paid for before they are ordered in.

Returns
we are unable to take back any drugs after they have been dispensed, as they have left our control. We guarantee to provide you with unadulterated, pure genuine products that can be traced back to the manufacturer and where possible, have long expiry dates.
We will accept non prescription items we normally keep in stock up to one week after purchase, provided they are returned in the same condition that they were supplied in.

Written prescriptions
prescriptions are available from the practice in order for you to purchase products from other sources such as online pharmacies. Please note that it is only legal to purchase from UK based suppliers. Prescriptions do not allow the dispenser the right to substitute any item on the prescription. Prescriptions are only valid for one issue unless so indicated on the prescription. We regret that we cannot accept any responsibility for the quality of products obtained elsewhere even if we have issued a prescription for them, nor are we legally allowed to include them on an insurance claim, nor are we allowed to dispose of products that have been purchased elsewhere.

There is a chargeable fee for each prescription written.

Fraudulently using a prescription may result in being banned from using our services and may possibly result in criminal charges.

Prices
prices and estimates are available for any product or service. We welcome comparison with other providers and strive to keep our prices as low as possible while still maintaining excellence in all we provide. If prices are compared, please make sure it is on a genuine like for like basis.

Consulting fees
in order to cover our basic costs, a fee is charged for every consultation. Longer then 10 minutes (standard) consultations will incur higher fee. All missed appointments will incur a charge.

Discussion
please do not hesitate to contact us if you wish to discuss any of the above terms or to suggest improvements. Our aim is to prevent and relieve suffering while remaining sensitive to your wishes and financial arrangements.

Abuse
The management at Blackwater Vets do not accept any kind of abusive behaviour whether physical / verbal / written towards staff or clients on the premises.