Episode 014

John. I really like your video format and the style of delivery but because I’m a Luddite, I never signed up to be able to add comments and time seems to pass by so quickly etc etc .

I can see that the US vets generate 40% more income from a 30+% smaller case load but I don’t recall the competition between vets being as high over there as it is here. I’ve begged and pleaded with VBD to establish an historical file to chart vet practice/individual numbers but they haven’t done it – however, you quoted a doubling in practice numbers and a trebling in vets working numbers, all of which will generate huge increases in competition even though, if we take out the part-time factor and reduce it to FTE numbers, I doubt that it’s quite as dramatic as that figure sounds. The real key here, I would suggest, is that OnSwitch published some figures aeons ago showing that 20+% of pet owners, who do use a vet practice, use more than one practice and sometimes multiple ones. They make their selections based on what their needs are and so, to some extent, these consumers have come to see veterinary practice as a commodity. That in itself is a highly dangerous situation, in my view, and particularly so when an element of the profession encourages them to choose their veterinary supplier based on price rather than service or quality. Add to this Alison’s comments about a further 10% of pet owners who are already drifting, having lost their pet, moved house, fallen out with their previous practice etc and we have more than 30% churn. In any industry that would be a high number but for a relatively conservative and static profession like this, that’s a distressingly high number.

You invited someone to make a comparison between US vets and UK vets in your video but I don’t think that’s a ‘safe’ comparison as the culture and the degree of competition are too dissimilar. What I’d like to see is someone better at mathematical modelling than I am running the numbers to see what ATV will be necessary if we let the client/patient numbers attrition run unchecked for five more years. I’ve been banging my head against the wall for ten years now trying to get vets and pet insurers closer together but that hasn’t happened and,the numbers will suggest, I’m sure, that ATV and incident costs will need to escalate considerably to get the same income from dramatically lower footfall.

In the cold light of repeated TV and press exposės, we cannot afford for pet owners’ trust in the profession to be further devalued and I’ve been urging the profession to organise itself and to deliver really good, well thought through positive PR in an effective and professional manner. To me, it seems as if the profession remains resolutely Canute-like in face of the waves of change without understanding that its playing a game by someone elses’ rules unless it stands up for itself in defence of the rules it prefers.

Sorry to harp on but I do think that there is a risk that my sense of impending doom and a certain amount of gloom will escalate unless the profession actually does something. The profession has been really good to me and has treated me as an adopted son even though I’m not a qualified vet. I can’t see it listening to my exhortations for change but you have worn the robes and crown of more than one of its august bodies – if I could persuade you, maybe you could persuade them??
Ross

Ross

Very many thanks for your feedback – I very much appreciate your input and share many of your views and concerns.

I particularly agree that the profession here in the UK is its own worst enemy and, as you say, too many vets and their staff implicately encourage animal owners to select their veterinary advisor on the basis of price rather than value. Our professional bodies simply don’t have the data at their fingertips to enable them to defend the profession and promote the benefits of professional veterinary services and moreover, appear not to be interested in the importance of generating and understanding the significance of that data. I also agree with your views about the need for more effective PR.

On the other hand and maybe because I’m a ‘glass-half-full’ sort of person, I remain confident about the future of veterinary practice in the UK. As always however, it will be individual entrepreneurs from outside and inside the profession rather than our elected professional bodies, who will take the lead in the strategic thinking about the future delivery of veterinary services in an ever challenging marketplace, which is so necessary.

Ever optimistic of Storrington!