Terms and conditions of business for Danmak Care Ltd T/A Portside Vets
Danmak Care Ltd , trading as Portside Vets, is a registered business in England and Wales with registration number 11933254 and whose registered office address is 11 Newhaven Square, Newhaven, BN9 9QS.This document sets out the terms of the contract established between us (Danmak Care Ltd) and you (the registered animal owner or individual requesting veterinary services). This contract is effective from the time of your registration with us or when you request veterinary services from us.
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General terms - applying to the provision of all goods and services
Liability
Our liability in respect of all and any claims, damages or losses arising in respect of the goods and/or services provided by us or arising in connection with any attendance at our practice or attendance at any property by one of our vets shall be limited in accordance with our insurance cover. In the event of any uninsured claims, damages or losses our liability shall be limited to the value of the goods and/or services to which the claim, damages or loss relates.
Client records
Client and clinical records, and other such similar documents (including, but not limited to, digital imaging results), are and shall remain the property of Danmak Care Ltd. Copies of clinical records may be passed to another veterinary surgeon on request should you move surgeries. We will ask for your verbal permission before doing so.
We never discuss or sell confidential records to any third party other than if you move surgeries or are referred to another veterinary surgeon.
Estimates
Estimates for treatments are provided verbally during consultation. Written estimates are available on request, however we do provide written estimates for surgical procedures on the consent form before a procedure takes place, on the day of the procedure, the latest. All estimates given are only approximate, and the final fee could be higher or lower than this estimate depending on individual differences in the patients and surgical procedures. We will endeavour to contact you as soon as we have reason to believe that the costs could be significantly higher than the estimate.
Fees
All fees for services and goods (including food, accessories and drugs) are subject to VAT at the applicable rate (currently 20% for standard-rated items) and it is included in all fees charged and/or estimated. An itemised receipt is available on request.
Fees for services include our professional fees in respect of the veterinary/nursing services provided and may vary according to the complexity and time needed for any individual case. In some routine services, drug and material fees will be included in service fees, if they are not, they will be included in the estimate and the itemised receipt.
Payments
Payment for goods and services is required on the day of service/purchase of goods before leaving the premises.
If you become unable to pay your account according to the standard terms, this must be discussed with the veterinary practice as soon as possible, preferably before the provision of services/goods.
In the absence of any other arrangement agreed with the veterinary surgeon, accounts not settled within our standard terms will be subject to a late payment interest charge of 5% above the Bank of England base rate accruing from the date payment should have been received until final settlement.
If you do not pay your invoice when it falls due we shall take such action as we consider appropriate to recover our fees which may include engaging third party debt collection agencies to recover the outstanding fees and/or instigating proceedings against you in the county court. In such cases, any costs levied by the debt collection agency will be added on to the outstanding balance owed by you and/or we will seek to recover any legal expenses from you. Please note that the use of debt collection agencies and the county court could affect your future credit rating.
We shall be entitled to suspend the provision of any further goods and/or services until you have paid any outstanding sums in full. We may only offer emergency treatment to animals of owners whose accounts are in debt, emergency treatment in this context meaning immediate and sufficient pain relief or euthanasia Where we consider it appropriate to do so we may require payment on account before goods and/or services are provided.
In certain instances, when the cost of the treatment exceeds £500 and your pet is insured, we may agree to recover our fees directly from your insurer. In order to do so, the intention of the direct claim should be discussed with the attending veterinary surgeon and proof a valid insurance needs to be presented. You would still remain liable to pay any excess on the treatment costs on the day of treatment, as above.
Prescriptions
Prescriptions are available from this practice. You will be advised of the prescription charge on request. Prescription charges are applied only when you request a prescription from us but go elsewhere to have the prescription filled. Animals requiring repeat prescriptions will need to be re-assessed periodically by the veterinary surgeon dealing with the case. The re-examination interval will vary between clinical cases but for non-parasiticide treatments is a maximum of six months, parasiticides is 12 months. Please give us 48 hours’ notice for any requests for a repeat or written prescription. There is a charge for a re-examination, details of which will be provided on enquiry.
Please note that we cannot accept the return of any prescription drugs as such items cannot be resold. If you wish us to safely dispose of any unwanted medication we can do so.
Data protection
When you register your animal with our practice or request that we provide veterinary services we will collect personal data about you. We will only collect data that we need to perform the services, take payment or contact you such as names, contact details and possibly some financial details. Please note that we may pass your details to debt collection agencies or our legal advisers for the purpose of recovering unpaid fees if you do not pay invoices when they fall due. For further information about your rights as a data subject, plus information about the categories of data we process, data transfers, the legal basis for our processing, and the purposes of processing, please read our privacy notice.
We share your personal data with MWI Animal Health, for the purposes of them providing the services provided through the portsidevets.mwi.pet appointment booking platform, which will include the following categories of personal data: your email address, name, address and phone number.
Complaints
We take complaints seriously. Should we not meet your expectations on any aspect of our service, please let us know at the time where possible.
Alternatively, should you wish to raise a formal complaint, we ask that you contact the practice in writing, either via email or a physical letter, within three months of the event. The clinical director or practice manager will then investigate your complaint and respond in writing within 15 working days of the date we received your written complaint.
If you are not happy with the outcome of the investigation, we recommend that you refer your complaint for external mediation through the Veterinary Client Mediation Service (www.vetmediation.co.uk tel: 0345 040 5834) within three months of the outcome of our in-house investigation. In cases of suspected professional negligence you may contact the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (www.rcvs.org.uk).
Home visits
In most cases your pet will receive better treatment if they are brought into the surgery where we have the equipment, facilities and staff necessary to treat them. However, there are some cases when it may be preferable to provide treatment at your home. We endeavour to come out to your home at your convenience but we ask that you give us at least 24 hours notice to arrange this, except in an emergency situation. We are unable to guarantee a home visit on any specific given day as it will be dependent on the current workload and availability of vets. There is an additional charge for a home visit. You will be provided with an estimate of fees when calling to book a visit.
Out of hours care and hospitalisation
We have provisions in place to provide emergency care for outside normal surgery hours. Our emergency care provider is
VetCall
Freshfield Business Park
Freshfield Way
Brighton, East Sussex
BN2 0DF
Tel: 01273 621682