Funded by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and free at the point of service for consumers, the Veterinary Client Mediation Service (VCMS) is an independent and voluntary alternative dispute resolution service. In 2023 to 2024, it received 3,548 enquiries, with 98 percent within its remit to provide advice and support. The number of enquiries was down 2.6 percent on the previous 12-month period.
Standards of care are still the main cause of pet owner complaints, according to the latest annual Insight
Report for 2023 to 2024, published by the VCMS.
Enquiries relating to standard of care were the number one concern for pet owners, accounting for 60 percent of all complaints, up 4 percent on the previous year. Within the standards of care category, there was an increase in disputes around unexpected outcomes (+37 percent) and vets not adequately investigating an issue (+12 percent); however, there was a sharp decrease in misdiagnosis complaints (-30 percent).
Customer service accounted for 19 percent of overall complaints, with service and communication around
consent increasing the most (+31 percent). After increasing last year due to the cost-of-living crisis, complaints about clinical fees accounted for just 14 percent of enquiries in 2023 to 2024, up just 3 percent year-on-year. Complaints regarding excessive fees fell 21 percent, while the most common fee-related issues were around clarity, being kept up to date on charges and cost-benefit analysis on different treatment options.
Overall, the VCMS was able to support more than half (56 percent) of the enquirers to raise and resolve their issues at a local level, with the practice. For those that couldn’t be resolved within the practice’s complaints procedures, the VCMS invited 1,050 veterinary practices to join the mediation process, of which 77 percent practices accepted. This signifies a 5 percent improvement on the previous year’s engagement rate. Of the 767 mediated cases in 2023 to 2024 – the highest number of mediations handled in the past 3 years – VCMS was able to achieve an impressive 82 percent resolution rate.
Through the mediation process, animal owners and practices have been able to agree resolutions to
complaints and disputes, and analysis shows that resolutions continued to be a mixture of financial
and non-financial outcomes. Resolutions such as apologies, explanations, further treatment or support
accounted for 47 percent, up 4 percent year-on-year. In appropriate circumstances, outcomes also included addressing disproportionate or unfair online comments and supporting the future relationship between animal owners and veterinary professionals. Financial resolutions include goodwill gestures (12 percent), which averaged £420.85, or discounts on fees (13 percent) as a resolution to the complaint. The VCMS process also helped resolve situations where animal owners had withheld payment of fees. Twenty-eight percent of resolutions involved the issues raised being addressed and the animal owner then settling the outstanding fees. This avoided an escalation to worrying and costly debt recovery processes in these disputes.
Jennie Jones, head of the VCMS, commented: “The issue of complaints and how these are handled within
the veterinary sector have been increasingly in the media in recent years, but what our latest report
shows in black and white is that when complaints arise, we have the mechanisms in place to resolve them
– and to do it quickly and fairly.
“Analysis shows that veterinary complaints are complex and not solely linked to costs, with nearly half of resolutions involving communication, explanations and a shared understanding of the situation. We continue to feedback our insight to the veterinary sector to help continuous improvement around communication and supporting positive relationships between animal owners and veterinary practice teams”.
You can read the full report here.
