We are very grateful to all the vets who are using our services during the pandemic, especially Animal PoisonLine. We hope that our support with triaging these often challenging cases has helped you reduce the number of face to face consultations.
Many owners are now aware of APL (and therefore also VPIS) and we have had some feedback from them about fees which we would like to share with you.
APL fees
Some owners have commented that their vets had told them that Animal PoisonLine was a free service. We would like to remind you that the Animal PoisonLine fees are £35 (8am-8pm Mon to Fri) and £45 (all other times) payable at the time of the call.
VPIS fees
Owners are upset to be told that they should ring APL because it would be more expensive if the vet made the same call and ask us why we would charge vets more. VPIS and APL have different charges because they are not the same service. APL is a triage line only and VPIS is a professional line where we provide all the treatment advice and unlimited recalls about the same case.
We appreciate that vets often pass the VPIS cost onto the owner but please be careful how much you mark up our fee. Some owners have come to us asking why we charge vets over £100 to call VPIS (since that is what they had to pay) and it is hard for us to defend.
Using a very large mark up will only deter people from agreeing to vets calling us and therefore fewer vets and owners will receive the advice they need to manage the case, potentially resulting in over or undertreatment. It also means the differential between the APL and VPIS fees is huge in the owner’s minds which is not the case. Please could we ask that you consider this when passing on our fees.
