Veterinary services

Here is a lovely young dog. Blipped with permission. Although she is very accustomed to appearing on Blipfoto.
But this Blip is not about her but is about Vets.
At our Baker’s Dozen discussion group this morning our topic was the number of dogs, cats and other pets and the cost of owning them.

There are about 12 million dogs in the U.K. and about 11 million cats. The numbers have almost doubled in the past 25 years and there was a sharp increase in early part of the pandemic but they have fallen back a bit in the last year.
There is no doubt that they give immense pleasure to people and most are much loved. Of course there are irresponsible owners and round here we get attacks on sheep and a decline in ground nesting birds.

Our discussion was in part triggered by the steeply rising costs of veterinary services.
In 1999 the law was changed to allow vet practices to be owned by non qualified people. The result is now that 60% of practices are owned by 6 very large international companies who employ the vets but set the prices and standards.
This may have benefits in the introduction of  expensive equipment such as scanners etc.
But there is no doubt that prices to pet owners have gone up steeply.
Often the practices keep there old name and clients do not know that all the local practices may be owned by companiesin Switzerland or America.

This has led the Governments Competition and Marketing Authority to set up an investigation into veterinary services.
Quite what they can do about it is unclear. Unless of course they set up a regulator called OffDog !

It is a dilemma. It may be that the services are clinically more advanced but that old people and those living alone may no longer be able to afford an affectionate companion.