Terms and Conditions – Pet Medical Centre

PET MEDICAL CENTRE

Business Terms and Conditions

We, “BTTO Ltd” trading as Pet Medical Centre provide services and supply products on following terms and conditions

1. Veterinary services

1.2. All veterinary services will be provided by appropriately qualified staff taking into account the nature of the service being provided.
1.3. Whenever applicable upon your request a treatment plan for the supply of veterinary services will be agreed with you following the initial consultation. This will include an estimate regarding the treatment required. In an emergency situation we reserve the right to provide such veterinary services deemed reasonable necessary, in the professional judgment of the veterinary staff, without agreeing to a treatment plan.
1.4. Any estimate given can only be an approximation of the cost of treatment required, if the cost of treatment looks as though it will exceed the original estimate, the veterinary surgeon responsible for provide the services will discuss any increased fees with you before any further treatment/procedures are carried out (not applicable in the event of an emergency at the discretion of the veterinary surgeon acting in the best interest of your pet).
1.5. We will endeavour to provide veterinary services in accordance with reasonable standards signified by the RCVS guidelines for practice standards and the professional conduct of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses.
1.6. These veterinary services shall be supplied during our normal business hours (current opening times can be found on our website). In an emergency the vet may be able to see your pet outside of these business hours but this will carry an extra charge. An extra charge might apply if seen outside of normal consultations time.
1.7. We reserve the right to decline to supply veterinary services at our discretion. You are free at all times, at your cost, to seek a second opinion on or concerning any veterinary services provided, subject to the payment responsibilities in these terms and conditions.

2. Veterinary products

2.1. You acknowledge and agree that all products must only be used in accordance with the instructions supplied with them or issued orally by the veterinary surgeon or nurse. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the use of any product, you should consult the veterinary surgeon providing the veterinary service or veterinary nurse for clarification.
2.2. Any products supplied to us shall be of satisfactory quality, deemed necessary by the veterinary surgeon providing the veterinary service, or other staff, and shall comply with any description given. All other warrantees, expressed or implied, are hereby excluded.
2.3. In the event of any defect or failure in any product our liability to you shall be to replace the product or refund the price paid by you for the product. Please be aware, open medication, not in its original packaging cannot be refunded but returned for disposal.

3. Service Charges

3.1. All veterinary services and products provided by us shall be charged in accordance with our current price list (of which is available, with notice, upon request) if you have any questions regarding the level of charged that will be incurred you should consult the veterinary surgeon in charge of your pets treatment or staff for clarification.
3.2. Payment is to be made in full by you, at time the services, or products are supplied, either at the end of the consultation, on discharge of your pet or on collection of products. All invoices are to be settled in full on receipt of the invoice, we may at our discretion agree that you may delay payment of an invoice, but only agreed by the veterinary surgeon himself. You are liable for all costs if the insurance company do not agree to pay for the services or treatment and the amount is to be paid in full.
3.3. We accept direct insurance claims at the discretion of the veterinary surgeon or head nurse. Direct claim is not a common procedure we do and is agreed under exceptional circumstances. A direct claim is where you do not pay us, we claim the money direct from the insurance company, upon receiving the excess payment from yourself upfront. In the event the insurance claim is not paid by your insurance company for any reason you are liable for the outstanding balance.
3.4. We may refer overdue accounts to a debt collection agency.
3.5. In the event that any invoice owed by you is not paid when due, then we may at any time, add additional charges to your account for administrative costs, or issue notice to you that no further veterinary services/products will be supplied to you.
3.6 In the event of non payment of any invoice in its entirety within the required period, further administrative and debt recovery charge may be applied to your account and deferral to Debt Recovery can take place forthwith.You agree to reimburse us of all debt recovery charges we incur in the pursuit of recovering the debt to to the additional correspondence, phone calls, reports, administration costs and other debt recovery actions. You contractually agree to pay these additional debt recovery sums and interestas a result of your non-payment under the agree payment term.If the account remain in arrears 30 days after referall to debt collection agency , we reserve the right to commence legal proceedings.You agree that you will be liable for any additional debt recovery cost thereafter as well as legal cost. You agree to be liable for our legal costs on an indemnity basis in addition to the principal sum and interest. We reserve the right not unddertake any further commercial dealing while the debt is outstanding and we can suspend the provision of any further good and /or services until the outstanding sum is paid in full. Please not country court judgments can impact your credit rating. Interest will be applied at 8% above the bank of England base rate.
3.7. If you are, for a valid reason, unable to pay for the veterinary services we are only obliged to fulfil our minimal legal responsibilities and professional obligations in respect to your pet.

4. Liability

We carry professional indemnity insurance. We supply veterinary services and products to you on the condition that our liability for any loss, claim, cost or expense arising out said supply shall not exceed and shall be limited to a maximum of the insured sum.

5. Complaints

5.1. All our clients should be satisfied with the veterinary services and any products supplied. In the event you are dissatisfied with any aspect of the veterinary service or products supplied by us or our staff, in the first instance you should contact the practice manager to discuss your concerns and he shall address any issues arising.
5.2. If you remain dissatisfied then please refer to our complaints policy.
5.3. In the case a complaint is made, we may share your information with our insurers or our indemnity providers or other professional advisors if we believe this will enable us to resolve your complaint more effectively.

6. Pet insurance

Whilst we recommend pet insurance cover, any contract of insurance is between you and the insurer. Please refer to your terms and conditions of the policy

7. Data protection

We will use the personal information you provide us with to:

provide the veterinary service and products and referrals
process your payments for the veterinary services and products
inform you about products and services we provide, including annual vaccinations

Miscellaneous

8. No alterations may be made to these terms and conditions without our expressed written consent. We may update or amend these terms and conditions at any time by placing notice to that effect in our practice.

9. The care given to your pet may involve taking photographs and radiographs. These case records shall be retained by us. Copies with a summary of the history of any patient can be passed to another veterinary surgeon taking over a case, on consent to us and settlement in full due to us in relation of such patient’s treatment by us.

9.Referrals and second opinions

9.1 Whilst we endeavour to provide the highest level of care for you and your animal, if you wish to request a referral to, or second opinion from, another veterinary surgeon or practice we will, with your permission, assist you in the process and forward on all clinical records promptly to that veterinary surgeon/practice.

The veterinary surgeon will facilitate a client’s request for a referral or second opinion. A referral may be required for a diagnosis, procedure or possible treatment. After a referral, the case is returned to the referring veterinary surgeon. A second opinion, on the other hand, is only for the purpose of seeking the views of another veterinary surgeon.Veterinary surgeons will recognise when a case or a treatment option is outside their area of competence and may refer it to a colleague, or to an external organisation or institution, whom they are satisfied is competent to carry out the investigations or treatment involved.

The veterinary surgeon will make a referral appropriate to the case. When considering what is appropriate the veterinary surgeon will consider all relevant factors. These might include the ability and experience of the referral veterinary surgeon, the location of the service, the urgency of treatment and the circumstances of the owner, including the availability and any limitations of insurance.

In cases where the client does not accept the veterinary surgeon’s advice regarding referral and would instead prefer referral to a colleague, organisation or institution of which the referring veterinary surgeon has insufficient knowledge to determine appropriateness, they may need to advise their client accordingly. In some such cases, the veterinary surgeon may consider that they cannot be party to such a referral relationship.

Both the referring veterinary surgeon and the referral veterinary surgeon will ensure that the client has an understanding of the likely cost arising from the referral.

10. Prescriptions

10.1 Any reference to ‘veterinary medicines’ in these terms is to Prescription Only Medicines, Category V (“POM-Vs”).

10.2 This activity is regulated by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. You can find information about the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and access the latest version of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations and Veterinary Medicines Guidance Notes on the VMD website.

10.3 If you require any veterinary medicine to be dispensed against a prescription, then you must supply the prescription to us before we dispense the veterinary medicine. A scanned or faxed copy is acceptable, unless it is for a scheduled drug or the prescription specifies that the original is supplied, for which we require the original prescription to be posted to our registered address.

10.4 We reserve the right to refuse to supply any veterinary medicine (whether on prescription or otherwise). If we refuse, unless the reasoning for non-supply is as set out in clause 10.5 below, we will refund the price of that veterinary medicine product in full, including the cost of sending the item to you.

10.5 It is an offence to alter a prescription in any way without authorisation from the prescribing veterinary surgeon. If we identify any prescription misuse, we will inform our regulatory authority, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD). The VMD will investigate and decide what further action to take. In the event of prescription misuse, we will cancel your order and refund your payment, less an administration charge of £20.

10.6 It is also an offence to onward sell any veterinary medicines that have been dispensed to you. If we identify such activity, then we reserve the right to terminate your contract with us immediately.

11 Returned Medicines Policy

The British Veterinary Association Code of Practice on Medicines (2000) states:
“Once stock has been dispensed, it should not be accepted back into the dispensary. No returned goods should be offered for resale because there may have been problems with storage conditions beyond the veterinarian’s control.”

This means that we cannot give refunds for returned medications as we are obliged to dispose of them. Out of date or unused medicines can be returned to Pet Medical Centre for disposal. Unfortunately, no refunds can be offered.

12 .Events beyond our reasonable control

12.1 If our supply of the Services is delayed by an event outside our control, such as:

12.1.1 you change the Services requested and this means we have to do extra work or wait for extra veterinary medicines, resources, materials and/or consumables used to provide relevant Services;
12.1.2 veterinary medicines, resources, materials and/or consumables are not delivered at the time agreed with the supplier of the veterinary medicines, resources, materials and/or consumables required to provide the agreed Services (and we cannot obtain a replacement within a reasonable time or the price charged by a supplier is much higher than the original charge);
12.1.3 we cannot access the premises where your animal is at the times we agreed with you;
12.1.4 adverse weather conditions; and
12.1.5 staff absences,

we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and do what we can to reduce the delay. If we do this, we won’t compensate you for the delay, but if the delay is likely to be substantial you can contact the Practice to end the contract and receive a refund for any services you have paid for in advance, but not received, less reasonable costs we have already incurred.

13 Charges

13.1 As far as is reasonably possible, we will provide you with an estimate of charges before providing the Services. Note that the charges estimated are not fixed and are based on our standard price and rates at that time and our understanding of the condition of your animal at the time of providing the estimate. All prices are in pounds sterling (£)(GBP) and include VAT at the applicable rate.

13.2 We may in some cases charge a registration fee for registering your pet at the Practice.

13.3 If, once we start providing the Services, we are of the view that our original estimate will be exceeded, we will do our best (taking the particular circumstances into account) to agree a revised estimate before continuing to provide the Services.

13.4 However, there may be circumstances where, acting in the best interest of your animal, we provide the Services without first agreeing an estimate of charges (for example in an emergency). In these situations, you will still be required to pay for the Services, but we will ensure that the charges are reasonable. We will only pursue a course of treatment where we consider it to be in the best interests of your animal.

13.5 You may need to purchase certain products from us (for example medicines) that your animal needs in response to treatment and/or care provided. In some cases, you will be able to purchase these directly from the attending Practitioner (in which case the products will be included on the invoice for the Services provided). In other cases, you will be required to collect and pay for these products separately (e.g., medicines dispensed from a practice).

13.6 We will be entitled to charge you fees if your animal’s case is referred to another specialist practice, clinic or hospital for treatment. Separate charges will also apply for the costs of posting or delivering clinical samples relating to your animal for analysis and sending out orders for veterinary medicines and/or other goods if requested. These are usually sent by recorded or special delivery post or delivered by courier.

13.7 We may charge you a fee for direct or indirect claim form application.

14.Payment of fees

14.1 You must pay for the Services and any goods (including food, accessories and veterinary medicines) at the end of your appointment, or on the discharge of your pet. We may at our discretion require full or part payment for the Services in advance. If you have a valid pet insurance policy, we can help you with it.

14.2 We accept payment by cash and most major credit or debit cards (excluding American Express). We do not accept cheque payments.

15. Zero Tolerance Policy

15.1 We take the safety and wellbeing of our staff and all animals in our care extremely seriously. Therefore, in entering into this contract you are agreeing to comply with our Zero Tolerance Policy, which can be found on our website or which you can request a copy from the Practice.

15.2 We will refuse to supply Services to you if you fail to comply with our Zero Tolerance Policy.

16. General

Pet Medical Centre cannot register a pet or contract to provide veterinary services to anyone who is a minor. Persons under the age of 16 should request their parent or guardian to obtain Pet Medical Centre service services on their behalf. By engaging Pet Medical Centre services, you confirm that you are 16 years old or older.

Reminders are provided as a complimentary service to our clients. We accept no liability for any loss, damages or costs which may result from the failure of a client to receive a reminder.

No addition or variation of these terms and conditions will bind us unless it is specifically agreed in writing and signed by an authorised signatory of the company, save that we may amend these terms and conditions from time to time either because we are legally required to do so or to reflect changes in relevant laws, regulatory requirements, payment methods, operating practices, market conditions affecting our business or to implement minor technical adjustments or service improvements which are unlikely to adversely affect your use of our services. Please go to the Pet Medical Centre website for the most up to date version of our terms and conditions from time to time.

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another person or company, for example in the event that we merge with another business, purchase another business, or another business purchases ours. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these terms to another person if we agree to this in writing.

This contract is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.

Each of the paragraphs of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.

Failure to insist that you comply with these terms or delay in taking steps against you will not mean that we have waived our rights in requiring performance of the contract or prevent us taking steps against you at a later date. For example, if you miss a payment and we do not chase you but we continue to provide the services, we can still require you to make the payment at a later date.

These terms and conditions are governed by English law. If you wish to do so, you can bring legal proceedings in connection with these terms and conditions or our services in the English courts. If you live in Scotland, you can bring such legal proceedings in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can bring such legal proceedings in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.

17. Prohibition on imaging and recording devices

17.1 To protect the privacy of our staff and other clients of the Practice, the use of any imaging or recording devices (including any imaging and recording functions on mobile phones) is prohibited on the Practice’s premises.

17.2 Any individual that is found taking imaging or sound recordings on the Practice’s premises, may be asked to immediately stop the imaging or recording and to delete the imaging/recording material.

17.3 Pet Medical Centre reserves the right to take legal action against any individual that covertly uses any imaging or recording device in a Practice, and/or uploads such material to social media (including Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) or any internet site.

18. Data Protection

18.1 When you register your animal with our Practice or request that we provide Services, we will collect personal data about you and, where relevant, your employees and/or agents. We will only collect data that we need to perform the Services, take payment or contact you such as names, contact details and possibly some financial details. Please note that we may pass your details to debt collection agencies or our legal advisers for the purpose of recovering unpaid fees if you do not pay invoices when they fall due. For further information about your rights as a data subject, plus information about the categories of data we process, data transfers, the legal basis for our processing, and the purposes of processing, please refer to our Privacy notice.

19. Ownership of records

Case records, including radiographs, clinical notes, laboratory records and similar documents, are our property and will be retained by us. Part of the fees charged will be for the interpretation of such radiographs or laboratory reports. A summary of the history will be passed on to another veterinary surgeon taking over the case. Should you wish to obtain a copy of the case records or radiographs, we will provide these on payment of an appropriate fee.

20. In-patient care

Level of in-patient care provided during normal practice opening hours

Our staff will provide appropriate and adequate in-patient care for your pet, as decided and instructed by the veterinary surgeon on duty. This care includes housing in a comfortable environment, monitoring and treatment commensurate with your pet’s condition, by persons with the requisite level of knowledge and expertise. During normal practice opening hours, a member of staff will be present on the practice site at all times and will be available to provide in-patient care to your pet.

Level of in-patient care provided outside of normal practice opening hours

If such a centre is available, patients that require overnight care and hospitalisation will be transferred, by either the practice or by the owner, to a dedicated out-of-hours provider.

21. Your Behaviour (and ours)

We take the health, well-being and safety of our staff, our clients and pets in our care very seriously. We therefore take a zero-tolerance approach against intrusive, offensive, violent or aggressive behaviour. Examples of behaviour that we deem unacceptable are: making malicious allegations about our staff or other clients; derogatory racial or sexual remarks; offensive sexual gestures or behaviour; using violent, threatening or abusive language (including swearing and offensive remarks); violent, threatening or abusive behaviour towards our staff, our clients or pets in our care; theft and other criminal activity; and non-compliance with the practice’s health and safety requirements.

Please note that we have the right to refuse to provide you services. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to decline to supply veterinary services, to ask you to leave our premises and/or to terminate our contract with you if you or any person accompanying or connected with you engage in any such behaviour, whether in our practice or when speaking to our staff via telephone, email or through our website. We understand that not all animals will respond to treatment as hoped which can be very distressing and will take this into account when dealing with such behaviour.

This goes both ways. If you feel that one of our staff members or other clients has acted inappropriately towards you or someone else, please let us know as soon as possible so we can investigate.

22. Termination of your contract with us

You can end your contract with us at any time and you can do so by visiting the practice (during normal business hours), or by sending an email or a letter to the practice informing us of your decision. When your contract ends, you will be responsible for collecting your pet from us (if it is in our care) and for paying any outstanding payments. We recommend that you register your pet with another veterinary practice from the date that your contract with us ends noting that we are not responsible for arranging this for you.

We also reserve the right to terminate our contract with you at any time for any of the following reasons: if the information that you provided to us on registration is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading; if you breach any of the terms of the contract (including those in paragraph ‎16; if you have failed to make payment to us when it is due and payment is not provided within 7 days of us reminding you; you do not provide us with information within a reasonable time that is necessary for us to provide the services; or in the event that the practice no longer provide services in whole or in part.

We will write to you either by post or email letting you know that we have made the decision to terminate our agreement with you and our reasons for doing so.

23. Our VAT number is 488706733 If you have any questions please contact us in writing;
Pet Medical Centre, 4 Top Hale, Wythenshawe M22 5 RQ