OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

We aim to provide you with a first class advanced orthopaedic services, which include lameness and poor performance investigations, back pain investigation and diagnostic imaging.

FEES

All fees, consumables and drug charges are subject of VAT at the current rate. Our fee levels are determined by the time spent on a case and according to the medicines, materials, and consumables used. Details of our fees are available on request and a detailed invoice is provided for every consultation or procedure. Estimates can also be provided on request. A full visit charge (determined by the distance travelled form the practice) is charged, unless the visit is shared with other clients (then the fee will be divided equally between number of clients).

CANCELLATION POLICY

We aim to provide all our patients and clients with the best possible service and to achieve this we need your cooperation. If you are unable to keep your appointment, please make every effort to cancel it or re-schedule it well in advance (at least 48 hours prior your scheduled appointment), so that it may be offered to someone else. Late cancellation (with less than 24 hours notice) will incur charge of £50.

EMERGENCY SERVICE

East Kent Equine only provides consultant services for orthopaedic problems and doesn’t provide any first opinion work or emergency service. Please see your regular veterinary surgeon if you require emergency service.

METHODS OF PAYMENT & SETTLEMENT TERMS

We do not offer any credit - payment in full will be expected at the time of the visit from all clients. Your account may be settled using cash, cheque, credit/debit card (Switch, Solo, Delta, Mastercard or Visa) or BACS (Bank Automated Credit Service). In case of payment by credit cards there will be additional charge of 3%. If you’re using your insurance to pay for the veterinary fees, then your excess must be paid at the time of the visit, rest can be left to be paid directly by the insurers to us. Should your insurers for any reason fail to pay the invoices, it will be your responsibility to pay us.

Failure to pay within 30 days will result in interest (8.5% over the Bank of England base rate) being added to your balance together with one off fee for referral to debt collecting agency. Interest charge will be added to your account every month until the balance is paid in full. We may also inform other local veterinary practices that your account has been referred to the debt collecting agency.

Any cheque which you issue which is returned unpaid, any credit card payment not honoured, and any cash tendered that is found to be counterfeit will result in your account being restored to the original sum together with any fees incurred in the process.

EQUINE HEALTH INSURANCE

East Kent Equine Ltd strongly supports the principle of insuring your horse or pony for veterinary fees. Preferably, we would like you to settle your accounts with us in accordance with these terms and then reclaim the fees from your insurance company. However, if that’s not possible and East Kent Equine is to be paid by the insurance company direct, a client’s policy excess and claim administration fee must accompany the claim form on a day of the visit. Should your insurers fail to pay the invoices, you are responsible to settle your balance in full.

PASSPORTS

All horses, ponies and donkeys must have passports, which should be available for the vet to check at the time of visit. We also strongly recommend that passports should be signed by the owner to confirm that the animal is not going for human consumption (Section IX).

If you do not have a passport, please contact your regular veterinary surgeon to obtain one. Where a passport is not available the detailed record of medicinal products must be retained. This information is available on your account documentation.

PRESCRIPTIONS

Prescriptions are available from this practice. You may obtain certain Prescription Only Medicines (POM-Vs) from East Kent Equine, or ask for a prescription and obtain these medicines from another veterinary surgeon or a pharmacy. As we can only prescribe POM-Vs for animals that are under our care - we will be only prescribing medication relating to orthopaedic problems diagnosed by us. If you need any other medication for your horse that is not relating to orthopaedic problems, please contact your regular veterinary surgeon who’s care your horse is under to provide these. The standard charge for a re-examination for repeated prescriptions is available on request.

PREVIOUS MEDICAL HISTORY

By requesting a visit with us, you are giving East Kent Equine permission to contact your regular vet(s) for any relevant history. Full medical report can be provided for your regular vet following our investigation/treatment.

COMPLAINTS

We hope that you never have reason to complain about the standards of service received from East Kent Equine. However, if you feel that there is something you wish to complain about, please direct your comments in the first instance in writing to a Director.

FEEDBACK

East Kent Equine is committed to using comments (either positive or negative) from clients to continuously monitor and improve the services it provides. We appreciate feedback and hope that clients will speak up when standards of care and service either exceed or fall below their expectations. In this way, we can strive to continuously improve the quality of the service that we offer. Remember, our aim is to do our best for you and all the horses in our care. We rely on feedback to guide us in how to provide the best possible service, se please tell us if there’s anything we could improve on!

OWNERSHIP OF RECORDS

Case records, x-rays and similar documents are the property of, and will be retained by, East Kent Equine Ltd. Even though a charge may be made for carrying out the investigations and interpreting the results, ownership of the resulting record, e.g. an x-ray or ultrasound scan remains the property of the practice. Upon request, copies of records with a summary of the history of your horse will be passed to your regular (or any other appointed) Veterinary Surgeon should this be required.

DATA PROTECTION

In holding and using data about you, we will comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018. In instruction us to look after your horse, you authorise us to use that data in the course of the work that we do for you; for further details of how we use your data please see our Privacy Policy.

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