$$$ MONEY MONEY MONEY $$$

No-one likes to think about money when health issues are involved – neither our clients nor we want to focus on costs and payments.

We run a veterinary practice because we want to help owners and their pets and farm animals.

The reality is that our bank, our landlord, our suppliers and service providers and our employees all need to be paid for what they do for us. Therefore, we need, with some reluctance to operate as a business so we can provide a sustainable service to our community now and into the future.

We are acutely aware of the pressures on our clients as they navigate the difficult pathways to provide for and maintain the health of much-loved pets and of farm animals.

There is no doubt that the costs of veterinary treatment can be hard for many families. There have been many advances in veterinary medicine and surgery and diagnostics in the time this practice has been in Kyneton (over forty years). Standards of treatment and care have risen greatly and so also with costs. We also tend to compare costs with the heavily subsidised costs of human medicine, and, of course, there are no subsidies for veterinary treatments.

We pride ourselves on the facilities and equipment we have to care for your animals.and these all come at a cost. But above these, we are very proud of the standards of care provided by our highly skilled and dedicated veterinarians, nurses and technicians who are the lifeblood of the care we can give to our patients. Forty years ago veterinary staff were very poorly paid for the hours they put in and the standards of care they provided. While things have improved a little, wages are still modest by community standards, but we do try to reward our staff as well as possible, and they deserve it.

We will always respect your decisions, priorities and choices and help you to do the best you can for your animals and family friends.

As we are not a finance provider, we do need to ask for payment at the conclusion of services, and for certain high-cost services (such as complex surgeries and medical cases or snake-bite cases), we may need to ask for a deposit before or during treatment. This may also be required for home and farm visits where there is no established credit history.

We can offer pre-payment plans to help for predictable expenses, and we can offer help in contacting credit providers for unexpected expenses. We also offer Gap-Only insurance claims for many cases if you have insurance, or we can assist with submission of insurance claims.

Please understand that we do care about your pets and do all we can to give you the best care you choose. We understand that veterinary expenses can be hard to afford and seem very expensive. Please be assured we are strongly focused on cost containment. At the same time, we are heavily invested in providing the best of contemporary care and equipment to get the best outcomes we can for you while also being conscious of the need to provide adequate reward for our highly skilled and dedicated staff appropriate for their tireless efforts for our clients and patients.

OUR FINANCIAL POLICIES 

• we are not a financial institution and cannot provide credit services
• we require payment in full at the conclusion of all services 
• Deposits may be required in certain circumstances
• Where temporary credit is provided as an exception we expect agreements for completion of payments to be honoured and administration charges will be applied as needed. This will only be considered with management approval PRIOR to incurring the expense.
• Where payments are delayed, we reserve the right to institute collection proceedings at the cost of the client to recover unpaid amounts
• We will always try to be compassionate and understanding, but we cannot allow unpaid services to compromise our ability to maintain our operations and serve our clients and patients.

Payments can be made by cash, EFTPOS or electronic transfer. If paying by bank transfer please include your Client Number and the surname of the account holder. If multiple names are used in the household, please be sure to use the name that is used on your client record with us. Transfers lacking the required information cannot be applied to your account, which leads to frustration and annoyance for all parties.