Terms and Conditions

Estimates and Fees

• All referred patients will have a consultation with one of our clinicians and a consultation fee will apply. We will advise you of the cost of this prior to your visit.

• At the initial consultation we will provide you with an estimate for treatment costs based on our best understanding of your pet’s condition at that time. For the more common conditions we treat this will generally be a fixed-cost fee for the initial surgery visit. For some conditions, especially if further diagnostics are required and the course of treatment is unclear, we may provide a guide to fees rather than a set-fee.
• Regardless of the estimate provided, we reserve the right to alter the estimate at any time if the clinical situation changes and the treatment plan is altered. We will always try to advise you of any such change prior to incurring the cost but in some situations where we are unable to contact you and especially if the urgency of the situation would otherwise put your pet at risk, it may not be possible to do this.
• Follow-up appointments and treatments will incur further charges, except where treatment involves surgery and the first routine postoperative follow-up consultation is provided free-of-charge. If additional treatments or investigations are required at this time (x-rays for example) then these are charged for.

Payment

• Payment is required at the time of consultation or treatment. We accept payment by bank transfer and major credit or debit cards. We do not accept American Express, cash or cheques.
• For scheduled surgeries/investigations we require 50% of the estimated cost prior to treatment and the balance when your pet is discharged from the clinic.
• We do not routinely offer payment plans

Insured Cases

• If you pet is insured then we will ask for payment at the time of treatment in line with the general policy above. We will then complete the necessary insurance forms so that your insurance company can reimburse you in due course. Please bring your insurance details to the appointment along with a signed claim form if necessary. Unlike some centres, we do not charge for processing insurance forms.
• If you are unable to pay for the cost of treatment up-front then please let us know before your initial appointment or any treatment. We will endeavour to help you by arranging a direct claim whereby we claim our fees direct from your insurance provider. Please note that we can not guarantee that we will be able to do this. Each case will be assessed individually to ensure that your cover seems appropriate and adequate for the anticipated treatment. This can take some time to do and so please request this prior to your appointment. You will need to contact your insurance company in advance to give them your permission to discuss your insurance policy with us. Even for direct claims we will require a deposit which is usually at least the cost of the initial consultation. If your policy includes an excess, a co-payment or if the cost of treatment will exceed the insurance available then the deposit will need to cover your expected contribution.  The deposit will be returned to you after payment by the insurance company, less any deductions made by the insurance company (such as an excess, co-payment, etc)
• Regardless of whether you pay us up-front or if we process your claim as a direct claim, it is important that you realise that our processing of your insurance claim does not guarantee that your insurance company will accept and pay the claim and we are in no way liable if this is the case. We encourage all owners to contact their insurance company to verify their cover prior to treatment. In the case of a direct claim that is not paid by your insurance company, you will become personally liable for our fees and any associated costs in recovering them.
• If your insurance company offers preauthorisation of claims (whereby the insurance company agrees in advance to cover a proposed course of treatment) then we are very happy to facilitate this but this may delay the treatment process whilst we await the insurance company’s decision.

RSA Insurance Policies

• Some popular insurance policies (for example Tesco, More Than, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer) are underwritten by RSA Insurance. RSA has a ‘Preferred Referral Network’. To join this network a clinic must agree discounted treatment costs with RSA. Our fees are already highly competitive and lower than many RSA Preferred Referral Network members. We do not feel this policy is fair to a small independent clinic such as ours or to non-insured owners and owners with non-RSA policies. Furthermore, many members of the RSA referral network are providing surgery services performed by non-specialists, so using the RSA Preferred Referral Network could result in your pet being treated by a less experienced and less qualified surgeon.
• Having an RSA policy does not mean that you have to use their referral network, but if you do not use their network RSA may impose a £200 penalty (this charge is not made by all RSA-backed policies or in all situations). We believe that you should be free to choose where you would like your pet treated and you should not be penalised for choosing the best care. If you are charged this fee as a consequence of treatment at The Moores Orthopaedic Clinic then we will reimburse you. We may ask for your assistance in challenging the charge prior to reimbursement.

Our Obligation to You

• We will treat your pet like one of our own and always strive to provide the best possible care for them.
• We will endeavour to treat you fairly and courteously.
• We will work alongside your GP vet and always keep them informed of your pet’s treatment.
• We are not an emergency clinic and do not have staff at the clinic 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In an emergency situation outside of our normal opening hours we may not be able to see your pet but we do promise that our clinical team will always be available to you for advice and support. Outside of our normal hours our team can be contacted by email or (preferably) by PetsApp. In urgent situations only we are also contactable by phone.

Your Obligation to Us

• We expect you to treat every member of our team with respect. We will not tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour and any such behaviour will result in withdrawal of our services.
• We expect you to keep your pet under control at all times whilst you are with them in the clinic, especially when other owners and their pets are close by.
• If your dog has a history of aggressive behaviour, to people or other dogs, we expect you to highlight this to us prior to any appointment/treatment so that we can take steps to minimise the risk to our team.

Our Surgical Guarantee

We can not guarantee that surgery will be free of complications, however we are confident of our low complication rate and so for our most common procedures we are pleased to offer a guarantee that will cover all professional fees involved in managing a surgical complication along with the majority of other related costs.

1. Surgeries Covered:

• TPLO surgery
• Elbow arthroscopy
• Patellar luxation surgery  (grades I-III)
• Total hip replacement

2. General Guarantee Conditions

• The guarantee covers the 12 months after the date of the first surgery unless stated otherwise.
• We will cover the cost of our time (consultations/surgery/anaesthesia/etc) and general hospital consumables/injectable drugs required to address any complication directly related to the covered surgery. The guarantee does not include the cost of external laboratory fees or dispensed oral medications such as pain-killers/antibiotics.
• The guarantee is dependent on the discharge instructions being followed exactly. Any deviation from the discharge instructions or other advice we provide renders the guarantee redundant.
• The guarantee is dependent on the patient being returned to The Moores Orthopaedic Clinic for requested/scheduled follow-up visits, for example the 6 week postoperative check.
• The guarantee is dependent on the initial surgical costs being paid in full, either by the client or by their insurance company. Non-payment of fees will render the guarantee redundant.
• In the case of postoperative infection the guarantee is not valid if there is infection elsewhere in the body that is likely or able to be seeded to the surgical site (e.g. dental disease, dermatitis, otitis, cystitis, etc).
• The guarantee is not valid for patients with other health issues that will delay/compromise healing (e.g. hypothyroidism, diabetes, obesity) or if the patient is on medications that will increase the risk of complications such as steroids and other immunosuppressants (e.g. Apoquel).
• The guarantee extends only to treatment provided by The Moores Orthopaedic Clinic -we will not reimburse the cost of treatment provided by, or medications dispensed by, other veterinary practices.
• Ongoing lameness in the absence of a specific surgical complication is not considered a complication of surgery and is not covered.

3. Specific TPLO surgery guarantee conditions

TPLO surgery is generally very successful, and most dogs return to full mobility and activity after surgery. The occasional dog will however have persistent or recurrent lameness despite TPLO and such lameness is not covered by the guarantee in the absence of a specific surgical complication. Examples include dogs with lameness due to arthritis, due to ‘pivot-shift’ (a form of rotational instability that can persist after surgery despite TPLO), due to patellar tendonitis or due to a post-surgery meniscal tear.

4. Specific elbow arthroscopy guarantee conditions

The guarantee covers routine elbow arthroscopy for the treatment of coronoid disease and/or humeral condyle OCD where elbow arthroscopy is the only procedure performed. If elbow arthroscopy is only part of the surgical treatment (for example dogs having concurrent ulnar osteotomy or HIF screws placed) the guarantee does not apply.

5. Specific patellar luxation surgery guarantee conditions

The guarantee extends to patients with grade I-III/IV patellar luxation having a traditional surgical correction (sulcoplasty, tibial crest transposition).  Grade IV cases are not included due to their added complexity and the likelihood they will benefit from osteotomy techniques (which are not included).

6. Specific total hip replacement guarantee conditions

The main risk period for most complications is the first 8 weeks after surgery and certain complications such as fractures and dislocations are very unusual after this time. These can occur at a later stage due to traumatic events unrelated to the surgery. Fractures and dislocations are therefore only covered for the first 6 months after surgery and only if there was no trauma involved.

The management of THR complications may in some instances require implant removal and conversion of the THR to a femoral head and neck excision.

The cost of new THR implants, if required, is not covered by the guarantee.