Do referral hospital vets ever admit to making a total balls up mistake?

[Millie Master]

7 months ago we adopted an exceptionally abused ex breeding ***** via the rescue charity we are supporter/members of.

We knew that when she was rescued 11 weeks before we took her on she was at deaths door and in need of urgent surgery which they couldn't do because she was in such a disgusting/abused condition, but after 2 weeks controlled diet they were able to operate to sort out her "lady" problems, she then gained strength day in and day out and then week in and week out until we finally were allowed to give her, her forever home.

Shortly after we adopted her she started to show signs of serious spinal and hip issues so the charity paid for X-rays to be taken by their vets and this in turn resulted in them raising the flag in honesty saying they didn't think there was anything they could do for her, so we were referred to one of the new breed of "cash cow" (oh you are covered by an insurance company who will pay absolutely everything) referral hospitals.
So some 7 months ago we went to this singing and dancing and unbelievably expensive referral hospital, with our very small rescue charity picking up the tab as it was a known ongoing clinical problem. There they carried out an MRI scan that cost the best part of £2k and they diagnosed she had an infected disc in her spine and immediately put her onto an intensive course of antibiotics.
After a couple or so weeks we were witness to a slight improvement in her condition, but for the next 6 weeks we still had to endure her spine chilling screams of pain which lasted for as much as 20 minutes every single time she tried to stand up after having been lying down for any period of time, and so it went on until we thought we had won the battle and for 4 exceptionally happy months she was in abject comfort with not a single murmur of pain or discontent, until just 2 weeks ago when yet again the screams returned................ bearing in mind she had continued throughout this time on her 3 times a day doses of 5 different antibiotics and pain killers.

So today, we took her back to the referral hospital for an emergency consultation and a further MRI scan the outcome of which was that we are firmly back at square one with them admitting that the antibiotics haven't worked, the infection is still in her spine and it has now spread to other discs................ Oh and by the way, despite their total cock up in the past, today is costing you a further £1,680 and then in a weeks time she will need surgery so as to extract a sample of the infected matter and that will be costing a staggering £6,800!!

They of course would never admit that they were wrong now would they!!

ps. We already know that as this is/was a known condition that no insurance company would cover this beloved beauty of a dog.

 

[St3v3]

Vets are only second to insurance companies for taking the pi55 and ripping you off. Estate agents are in there somewhere as well...

We have a fully insured cat that 6 months ago, on a regular check up ( that we pay far too much for IMO), was diagnosed with really bad teeth. For the second time. And guess what? Not covered by insurance. 1st time cost something like 400 quid, this estimate was something like 600. No thanks, she's 8 years old, when she looks in pain I'll give her a quick exit, she's had a good run lol.

Licence to print money...

 

[St3v3]

£6800 will buy you a nice memorial, a new companion and a fantastic holiday to celebrate it's passing.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but it's a dog.

 

[Millie Master]

£6800 will buy you a nice memorial, a new companion and a fantastic holiday to celebrate it's passing.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but it's a dog.

My entire family accuse me of being a hard hearted matter of fact bastard of a person who shows next to no compassion for anything other than the four legged friends who have adopted me!!
This is very true, however it is also very true that in all things life related as the custodians of these amazing four legged friends we have the fortuitous gift of the light switch of life, in as much as we can give the instruction to a vet that this poor beloved animal has already gone through far, far too much, so I instruct you to please let them rest in peace. (I sincerely believe we should be allowed to do exactly the same with our own lives!!!)

However with regards to the case in question, this is not my argument as I still have the heart felt opportunity of ending poor Bonnies life, my question and my objective is that the money grabbing referral hospital who cocked up so completely 7 months ago won't admit to their mistake and what is more, from what I have turned up so far, with the exception of their own close knit professional association, they are not actually accountable to any other authority in the UK from what I have read so far.

We have a one week window to make our decision as to what to do next, I know the money can and will no doubt be made available by the small but amazing (breed specific) rescue charity, but that is not my point, I want to somehow make sure that something is done about the utterly appalling state of affairs that these money grabbing bastards have to be made answerable for their actions!!

 

[snapster]

First of all, what a beautiful dog you have there and your commitment to give her the best life up to now is commendable.
I won’t make any comments on what could happen next, we have had to make some very hard decisions in the past and I wouldn’t dream of trying to influence one way or another.
I also agree that there should be something you could do or somewhere to take your concerns, but I can imagine complaining to their governing body would see ranks closing fast.
If this is something that happens a lot, and not just a one off, I suppose the only course for you would be to try and get the media interested, but it would be really good if some TV channel would take your case on.

 

[Millie Master]

If this is something that happens a lot, and not just a one off, I suppose the only course for you would be to try and get the media interested, but it would be really good if some TV channel would take your case on.

Thanks for that Snapster, rest assured I am on my high horse now with the singular objective of finding some way of getting 'Bonnie' sorted as well as trying to ensure this bloody gravy train of these establishments are made to be more accountable!

We have had to go to this specialist referral hospital now on 4 occasions and on each and every visit I have seen the faces of people drop so enormously when resented with their accounts. Even those with insurance policies will normally have a maximum ceiling of (say) £4,000 which is tiddly squat bloody use when being handed a bill for £10k or more!
Obviously you can't get a firm quotation from any of these pariah organisations and that I can understand, but it is the way they do it and in their chromium plated surroundings that makes me so bloody livid! The £zillions this private organisation is currently spending on building and extension works has to be seen to be believed and it is something that I know is in part fuelled by the fact that any referring vet will be on the receiving end of an introductory commission pay back, even the charity like mine receives a 10% reduction!!

 

[Jeanette]

Thanks for that Snapster, rest assured I am on my high horse now with the singular objective of finding some way of getting 'Bonnie' sorted as well as trying to ensure this bloody gravy train of these establishments are made to be more accountable!

We have had to go to this specialist referral hospital now on 4 occasions and on each and every visit I have seen the faces of people drop so enormously when resented with their accounts. Even those with insurance policies will normally have a maximum ceiling of (say) £4,000 which is tiddly squat bloody use when being handed a bill for £10k or more!
Obviously you can't get a firm quotation from any of these pariah organisations and that I can understand, but it is the way they do it and in their chromium plated surroundings that makes me so bloody livid! The £zillions this private organisation is currently spending on building and extension works has to be seen to be believed and it is something that I know is in part fuelled by the fact that any referring vet will be on the receiving end of an introductory commission pay back, even the charity like mine receives a 10% reduction!!

Nearly all the establishment have a license to print money and they think of a number and double or treble it they are accountable to no one,apart from themselves!

 

[Rec]

We have realised how expensive vets in UK are and that they don't seem to be accountable....we took our dog to the vets in Portugal and the cost was about a third of UK and they seemed to get to the bottom of the problem! She has been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid , the tests cost less than £40 had result within half an hour. The UK vet charged £45 before doing anything and was talking about a referral to "specialist" . Our local vet said it was something he hadn't seen and asked for his senior vet to come from another branch and see her ( didn't charge for that!). Feel happier when they can admit they are stumped! Good luck with getting her sorted.

 

[rugbyken]

we used to have the same local vet for 30 years useless with people no bedside manner but the animal was always his priority he suspected a rough collie we had was suffering with a brain tumour operated on the condition that if he found what he suspected he would not wake her to suffer , he did and didn’t wake her but his bill was negligible because he couldn’t help her, put me in my place a couple of times with comments like “oh your a vet as well “ but as i got to know him and his reputation i trusted him to do always the right thing with my pet

 

[Rec]

We had one like that many years ago..terrible with people but knew her stuff and appreciated that we simply did not have money! Dog had a bad accident and the locum vet saw her, said we needed a specialist op and still may not save her leg. We went and, luckily, saw Diane who was horrified as we said she would have to be put down as we couldn't afford any more treatment( three young kids and already spent nearly £2000) . She insisted she would save the leg, had her weekly for GA dressing changes and never charged us another penny. Saved the leg and Sally went on for another seven years. So not all are bad but I think it is these large groups who seem to have lost the way!

 

[Millie Master]

Well we have just arrived back with our little 'Bonnie' who is showing the longest shaved area along her spine that I have ever seen and the neatest set of stitches I have seen as well.
When they put her under they then conducted a further MRI of her entire spine ( no one is willing to say why they didn't do this before ) and they discovered a new[ish] swelling of one of her discs in the pelvic region that was patently giving her a lot of pain and trouble, so they operated on this single disc, removing the entire central section of it and then bonding it.

The entire section they have removed they have now sent to their lab. where they will be undertaking culture growths so as to try and work out what is the infection and which antibiotic will prove to be capable of attacking it...... So our fingers are firmly crossed.

So for the next month, somehow we have to keep under strict control a little girl who simply wants to race around!

Our enormous thanks go out to the amazing rescue charity Spaniel Aid UK who rescued 'Bonnie' in the first instance and who are footing the costs of all this surgery. If you have never hear of them and if you like Spaniels as much as we do, why not take a look at their website http://spanielaid.co.uk/

 

[Rec]

How is Bonnie today?

 

[Millie Master]

How is Bonnie today?

Thanks for asking Ruth.

Well it is very early days and we don't as yet know if the removed tissue matter is showing any signs of reacting on the culture plates in the lab, however with our fingers firmly crossed she appears to be a lot better than she was when I took her into Six Mile Bottom a week ago.

Fortunately, apart from when she spots something with feathers on it, she isn't exactly the liveliest of dogs as such, it isn't proving to be too difficult preventing her from getting overly excited and generally dashing about, but it is a bit of a faff having to stoop down and then gently carry her to the next level............. and we are having to carry on doing this for at least the next 4 weeks.

Very hopefully the culture will show signs of what the discospondylitis infection is in her spineactually is and that there will be a known antibiotic that will cure it, but there is absolutely no guarantee, most especially as the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi is becoming ever more prevelant..... but here is hoping!

But for the moment she is looking to be so much better with her terrible, tortured memories well and truly forgotten.

 

[Rec]

Looks like it's healing nicely too! So glad she has a chance of sorting it out. You feel so helpless when they are sick! Just a tip....when my parents had to carry their (overweight) lab upstairs as she lost the use of her legs, they used a gillet of dad's to lay her on and use as a stretcher! Saved their backs..

 

[Millie Master]

Looks like it's healing nicely too! So glad she has a chance of sorting it out. You feel so helpless when they are sick! Just a tip....when my parents had to carry their (overweight) lab upstairs as she lost the use of her legs, they used a gillet of dad's to lay her on and use as a stretcher! Saved their backs..

We have several soft dog beds around the house and when it comes to taking her up or down stairs, whichever one she is lying in we use it as a means of carrying her................. she loves the experience!!

In our house it is very much the same as in 'Millie' my self built campervan, absolutely everything we plan, design or build is always done with the number one proviso that our faithful four legged friends always come first.

Oh I have just seen that you live over in Suffolk, we seem to be going over there rather a lot these days, it's a hum dinger of a county.

 

[Rec]

We have several soft dog beds around the house and when it comes to taking her up or down stairs, whichever one she is lying in we use it as a means of carrying her................. she loves the experience!!

In our house it is very much the same as in 'Millie' my self built campervan, absolutely everything we plan, design or build is always done with the number one proviso that our faithful four legged friends always come first.

Oh I have just seen that you live over in Suffolk, we seem to be going over there rather a lot these days, it's a hum dinger of a county.

We love it...only moved here 18months ago. It's peaceful, only thing we miss is being over the road from the sea...but only 15 mins away and we have a lake in the grounds! Don't think the parents could have carried the Labrador on a bed..too big! They threaded her front legs through the armholes of the gillet and it kept her in place