Welcome to Oak Tree Veterinary Centre

Arriving At The Centre

Please do not be embarrassed if your pet passes faeces in the car park but do let us know so that we might clear the mess away for you. We would be grateful for your close attention to prevent urine marking inside the waiting room and consulting rooms. Urine marking has proven an expensive experience for us, in terms of damaged foods and shop products.

Cat owners

A small amount of hay in the basket may be used to provide a warm and secure environment for transport.

We have a well stocked shop, selling foods and pet supplies. In addition, we benefit from daily delivery from a national veterinary suppliers who carry tens of thousands of lines. Knowing you and your pet as individuals and our experience, training and qualifications means we can offer a friendly, expert, convenient and cost effective service compared to the impersonal "pet sheds" and supermarkets. Furthermore any profit from the sales of food goes straight back into improving the practice for the benefit of your pet, not disappearing to a distant head office and shareholders.

On all shop sales we pay a 3% dividend redeemable against your pet's annual vaccination health check. We call the scheme Healthy Pet Points much it is considerably more generous than the high street retailers.

We are a premier outlet for Purina ProPlan for cats and dogs. We also stock a variety of foods for smaller mammals. In addition we can offer next day availability on almost any food such as Hills Science, Royal Canin, Eukanuba & Iams and pet care products. Why not give us a try the next time you need supplies. We would be surprised if you were disappointed and buying from us helps us further our knowledge and facilities meaning a better veterinary service to you in the future. No other outlet can make such a claim.

We would encourage you to pre-order food and other supplies well before you run out. That way we can ensure that your order is in stock, labelled, priced and ready for collection, saving you time and avoiding any disappointment.

We have many satisfied clients benefiting from our food service and the Healthy Pet Points. Why not join them and share in the saving at booster time.

Please phone at any time of the working day to arrange an appointment. It is always better to phone as early as you can, especially if you wish to attend the same day. This will give you the best chance of an appointment with your preferred vet at a time best suited to your schedule. We book appointments from 9am in the morning and the morning period is shared between appointments and the day's surgery cases. After lunch we aim to book from 3pm. onwards. If you are able to take an appointment between 3pm. and 4pm. you can take advantage of our "off peak" discount of £4.00 on vaccination and £3.00 on routine consultations. In 2004 we added a small supplement to the consultation and other service fees from 6pm weekdays, on Saturday mornings and most Bank Holidays to allow us to supplement the nurses' wages for working these less desirable hours. This supplement in 2012 is £2 per routine consultation and £1 on minor services, where a consultation is not charged

We have a limited availability over the Christmas and New Year's Holidays and information may be obtained by viewing our website on www.oaktreevet.co.uk, listening to the phone messages on 0131 539 7539, viewing the seasonal notice on the front door or by speaking with us during working hours.

On Sundays, we have what we call an urgent case surgery. Both a veterinary surgeon and a veterinary nurse return to the surgery at 10.30am to open the surgery for 15 minutes to see any pets who have problems best attended to before the next routine surgery. If you're a registered client you may arrive promptly at 10.30am and we shall examine and treat your pet. If you are not registered with us please telephone at 10.30am prompt for advice and please be ready to come immediately, if instructed. Our agreement with the emergency service means we are unable to provide weekend attention for clients registered with other practices in Edinburgh. Please see the Emergency Attention Section, for further details.

The consultation fee for this Sunday service in 2012 for a new condition is £55.00 including VAT, plus treatment. This fee contributes towards the additional time and travel involved in us returning to the centre.

There is a minimum charge of £32.50 including VAT, for a condition already under treatment and applicable to all species. The cost for this Sunday service is less than half the cost of emergency attention.

We make no restriction on the type of cases seen and we are happy to offer our clients general advice at this time. The waiting room shop is open, for all sales. Many clients take advantage of this session, for the collection of pre-ordered food or other supplies. Please look in the Food section for more details.

Please Note that we answer the telephone, on Sundays, only between 10.30 and 10.45am, even if we are still attending cases at the surgery after that time.

If you phone and arrange to be seen, but are unable to be here promptly during the 15 minute session, we do reserve the right to make a full out of hours consultation charge, currently £110.00, including VAT, plus treatment to cover the additional staff time of waiting for you to arrive.

We very much encourage you to phone in advance of you requirement for repeat prescriptions as, in order to comply with the Medicines Act, the veterinary surgeon must review your notes to authorise the dispensing. The veterinary nurses can then prepare the items ready for your collection, saving you time, when you visit. We are obliged, by law, to re-examine an animal under our care, at appropriate intervals, to ensure that the repeat prescriptions are necessary and correct. The interval varies from one to a maximum of three months, depending upon the condition.

During normal hours the nurse will alert the veterinary surgeon and prepare our facility for your arrival.

Please do not arrive at the surgery without telephoning first as this may lead to considerable delay in treating your pet as the veterinary surgeon may not be there to see you .

Should your telephone call be after our closing time, you will hear a comprehensive spoken message detailing our next surgery and the details of the emergency service, Vets Now Ltd. whose number is 444 0990. If phoning the emergency service, your call will be answered directly by a veterinary surgeon or veterinary nurse who will arrange veterinary treatment for you at the clinic's premises or be able to give you advice. The clinic is a separate business in its own right and payment for out of hours care will be payable to them at the time of treatment, although some of it may be reclaimable if your pet is insured. They will return the case to ourselves at the earliest opportunity, allowing us to continue to look after you in the familiar surroundings at Oak Tree. Oak Tree Veterinary Centre, like each of the other participating practices, contributes financially so that your pets may be treated by qualified staff in good clinical surroundings. It is important to us that this investment by us brings you good service and we are always ready to pass on suggestions for improvement, comments and compliments. Please involve us with any feedback, you care to make.

In order to avoid misunderstanding and to place our transactions on a proper footing, we have summarised the terms and conditions of service under which treatments and sales are made by Oak Tree Veterinary Centre. Only the proprietors of Oak Tree Veterinary Centre have the authority to alter these conditions and by registering and attending the practice you agree to be bound by them

To allow us to fully comply with the various regulatory authorities that blight our lives, we have decided to ask all existing and new clients to sign a registration form . In no way does this commit you to our services, indeed we are strong supporters of the fact that you can attend who you choose, as it motivates us constantly to do our best for you. The form will detail that you have received this brochure and that annual updates are available each January. It also includes a consent for the occasions in our canine and feline patients where we have to prescribe commonly used (usually human) medicines that have not been specifically licensed for cats and dogs. We might ask for further informed consent if we consider the use of these medicines might be potentially dangerous to your pet e.g. cancer treatment drugs. In the case of small mammals, almost none of the medicines we use are licensed in these species as there is little financial gain for the drug companies for doing so and you must accept this is the case for us to provide meaningful treatment

Unfortunately, there is no National Health Service for pets and as a result you are responsible for the payment of your pet's veterinary bills.

Oak Tree Veterinary Centre provides caring, conscientious modern treatment for your pets but there is no escaping, that in order to be here next year and beyond, we rely on you to pay us for the service we provide. Drugs and supplies together with staff salaries account for the majority of your account, as good medicine is very labour intensive and we need your prompt payment to meet our obligations to our staff and suppliers.

We have set our fees on the basis that the work is paid for at the time of consultation or collection of your pet, after operation. We do not have, nor would we wish to employ a secretary to run an accounts system, as the extra costs would have to be passed on to you without any benefit to your pet. In addition, dealing with account matters takes my nurses away from the duties they are trained for and enjoy, that is helping you and caring for your pet.

When you register with this practice you agree to settle fees at the time of consultation or on collection of your pet after an operation or hospitalisation. We accept cash and most debit and credit cards, excluding American Express. We can accept direct electronic payment into our account, under certain circumstances.

Important On 1st. April 2010, we stopped accepting personal cheques.

Without prejudice to the above, we do have arrangements for direct billing of selected insurance companies, leaving you only the policy excess to pay, should your pet be insured. However, you do remain liable for the full amount of the account at all times. Where there is an unacceptable delay for any reason or where an insurance company refuses to pay, we shall ask you to make immediate settlement of the account. Should you be unable to produce a valid signed insurance claim form within 14 days of our request, you will settle your account with us in full. We shall. of course, assist you in recovering your entitlement once a valid claim form is received. New conditions regarding direct insurance claims came into force on 1st. April 2007 and are detailed in section 6.

Unpaid fees. Where for any reason, fees remain unpaid after seven days of the due time, we reserve the right to add an administration fee of £15.00, refundable if payment is received within 10 days of invoice date, to cover the costs of preparing and sending your account. Any special , quantity or off peak discount will be lost and a revised invoice issued which will supersede any original. Any subsequent costs required to secure your payment will be charged in full, together with interest on the outstanding amount.

When we take on a case, it becomes our responsibility to attend the patient as dictated by the clinical opinion of the veterinary surgeon in charge of the case and an appropriate consultation fee, is charged on each occasion to cover the veterinary surgeon's and nurse's time and the use of our facility.

The first examination for a particular problem attracts a routine consultation fee, to cover a period of up to twenty minutes set aside for your visit. Where a more complex problem is present an extended consultation fee might be charged to cover up to a thirty, forty, fifty or sixty minute appointment. A consultation fee, usually at a reduced level, is charged for each subsequent examination concerning the particular problem dependant on the amount of time required to review your pet's condition, perform any treatments, produce reports or letters and outline treatment options. On occasions, the final examination may be very brief with no medicines being required and at the discretion of the consulting veterinary surgeon the appropriate consultation fee might be waived.

We offer a free puppy or free kitten check up for newly acquired healthy animals who are under vaccination age and where the pet is to attend the practice for the vaccinations. Where an animal is reported ill, or is obviously ill on presentation, or the client does not attend for the recommended vaccines for their pet, we reserve the right to charge the normal practice fees.

Generally, planned, brief post operative examinations up to and including stitch removal are included in the operation fee but extra work caused by neglect or failure to follow post operative instruction is chargeable. All bandage changes are chargeable.

All medicines and materials used are chargeable, in addition to the appropriate consultation fee

4) Late and Missed Appointments

When you make an appointment with us, we set aside time for the exclusive use of yourself and your pet and if you miss your appointment, this time is wasted. If you are late, we may not be able to give you the full time originally set aside for you in consideration of the schedule of following clients. If you arrive after the end of your scheduled time, we may not be able to see you at all, at that time. You shall also be liable for the missing of your appointment. In 2004 we commenced a modest charge for each appointment missed or cancelled within an hour of it's start, unless that time can be allocated to another pet. The charge in 2012 is £8.95.

We are able to organise prepayment facilities for planned work such as bitch spays so that by the day of the operation the fee is already paid.

We can also provide treatment vouchers to be given as presents to friends or relatives. This can be in the form of a voucher for a sum of money or a voucher for a particular service, such as vaccination for a new puppy. Please ask for details.

6) Pet Insurance

We recommend, strongly, that you consider insuring your pet for veterinary fees. This means that you can choose the very best and most complete course of treatment, including expert referral if necessary, without having to worry about the cost.

We are not agents for any company but provide information in the waiting room, for your convenience. The new Financial Services Act forbids us to recommend or advise against taking out a particular policy. We consider this to be a slight on our reputation and have always given our advice freely without regard to our own benefit but there is nothing we can do about it. However we have a leaflet available which, without prejudice, gives general information as to how to select a good policy for your pet.

As with all insurance, please survey a variety of companies to select the right cover for your circumstances at reasonable cost. We shall complete the veterinary section of the form for you for whichever insurer you choose.

All dog owners should ensure that they have third party cover as you are, in law, responsible for the actions of your dog. This could, at worst, compensate a family for the death of a person, if your dog causes them to crash their car.

Pet insurance usually covers for this risk, as can some household insurance. It is definitely worthwhile checking that you are covered.