New registered clients terms and conditions

Helping Pet owners of Mersea Island and surroundings to maintain the well being of their beloved family pet, through provision of veterinary care and education on responsible ownership.

Please note these terms and conditions apply to both new clients and all previously registered clients.

The client and vet relationship at Blackwater Vets

Building a relationship between client and vet is of upmost importance at Blackwater Vets; trust, honesty and respect is key to developing our practice community. Therefore we require all pets in your household to be registered with us and we will be your primary veterinary service.

Whilst medical decisions made are first and foremost based on animal health and welfare, we must recognise the need to balance what treatments may be necessary or appropriate against the circumstances and wishes of the client. This is why we strive to build a trusting relationship with our clients to provide the best care possible.

Previous Veterinary Practices

Blackwater Vets is a one Vet practice which means we only have one Vet to look after every registered pet on Mersea Island.

If you already have your pet registered with a nearby Colchester Veterinary Practice, we will be unable to accept you as a new client and you should remain with your original practice.

Annual health checks

To remain registered with Blackwater Vets we require all of your pets to attend annual health checks with our Vet. This is an important opportunity for us to look at your pet’s overall health and wellbeing, including checking their heart, lungs, eyes, ears, teeth, coat, bodyweight amongst other things.

This gives us the opportunity to pick up on subtle signs of pain or illness in the early stages, thus treatment can begin sooner.

Pain management

Pain management is an area of pet welfare we feel very strongly about and where we will never compromise. However, we understand that recognising pain in pets can be difficult for owners.

We will help and guide you on both veterinary care but also comprehensive management to aid pet wellbeing. This might include environmental changes in conjunction with pain relief which could avoid the need for multiple medications or allowing a pet to become so debilitated that the muscles wastage and treatment becomes unviable later.

Pet Calm Policy

In line with our focus on both emotional and physical wellbeing for pets, we introduced our Pet Calm Policy. We respectfully ask our clients to make alternative arrangements for children when you are bringing pets to the practice. This will allow you to give your undivided attention to your pet during the examination, ensuring the visit will be more productive and also less stressful for you and your pet.

One Vet Policy

Our expectation is that if you choose us as your primary veterinary service, we remain your sole primary veterinary provider. This helps us ensure consistency to provide your pet with the best care and advice possible and ensure that all your pet’s clinical notes are under one roof for cross referencing purposes.

The importance of this was exemplified recently when we treated a patient and prescribed a medication for a pet who, unbeknown to us, had visited another primary vet practice. This practice had prescribed other medications.  Thankfully, the owner telephoned to notify us just in time. If we had not been made aware of this the two medications would have clashed and caused quite significant side effects to the animal.

This is one of the reasons why our “One Vet Policy” is so important to us. Your pet’s health and wellbeing is always our primary focus and takes priority.

Second opinions

We encourage second opinions especially in tricky cases when diagnosis might not be easily achieved. This must be with a specialist referral centre, where professionals examining your animal will have higher qualifications and experience than us. These centres also have advanced equipment to better assist (MRI, CT scans etc).

However, if a second opinion request to see another primary care veterinary practice that offers the same level of service as us, we feel concerned that this shows a lack of trust and see this as a break down in our relationship. We would therefore advise a change of vets and duty of care will be transferred.

If a referral to a specialist service is needed, this will be discussed and arranged during the consultation. Our out of hour’s provider (Vets Now Manningtree) and the other veterinary specialists that we refer to, always communicate clinical notes with us and we do the same in return. This shared information gives your pet the best quality of care.

Finance

We expect you to settle your account at the time of services and/or goods are being provided and if you are insured then claim back from your insurance company. We do not charge for filling out insurance claim forms and this is a complementary service. We will do all we can to support a claim but we do not have a specific time period for completion.

We accept cash and debit or credit cards and we do not accept cheques and American Express cards.

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

Librela, Cytopoint and Solensia injections

Please view our terms and conditions at the bottom of this page.

Changing vets

We would expect you to inform us if you wish to change vets and to seek approval from you to transfer the clinical history to your new veterinary practice. The duty of care will then lie with your new veterinary practice, including all aspects of veterinary care (flea, worming prevention, vaccinations, emergency care etc.)

We will ask you the reasons you wish to leave but you are not obligated to let us know. We expect all outstanding bills to be settled before you change vets.

From time to time we may receive a request for your data for the purposes of referral, insurance claims or when you’re on holiday with your pet. Should we receive such a request, we will seek your permission before transferring any data related to you.

If you have changed practice we will see this as a breach of the Vet/client relationship and you will be unable to return to Blackwater Vets.

If you wish to make a comment or complaint please visit our contact us page here.

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.