17/10/2025
With all these discussions and posts on social media regarding corporate pricing following the CMA Provisional Findings I feel it will be extremely detrimental for our clinics in Northern Ireland who are already struggling.
Whilst I 100% agree that veterinary expenses have become unnecessarily expensive with corporate clinics charging an arm and a leg for treatment. I feel we need to ask why?
Having worked for over 10 years within the veterinary industry in multiple clinics, independent and corporate. Both, thankfully, have always put patient care at the forefront of their agenda. I understand this may not be the case in every clinic – however that is a different concern.
My main reason for this post relates to the fact that I am currently seeing clinics pitch themselves against the ‘corporate clinics’ and trying to promote themselves as better, authentic and focused solely on patient care, which is great! I applaud you for being able to stay independent during these difficult times. However, just because a clinic is corporately owned doesn’t mean the staff do not care or put patient care at the center of their values. I have worked in corporate clinics that will bend over backwards to see a patient if needed and I have worked in independent clinics who don't.
The issue here lies with the HUGE corporate companies that bought the originally INDEPENDENT clinics that were struggling in Northern Ireland, that tried their hardest to stay independent, who fought their hardest through debt and financial strain to stay open or to keep their clinic. When they do sell, it is usually and, in most cases, a last, desperate resort to cling onto their dream and their hard-earned success. Therefore, it is not just a corporate company you boycott but usually a previously independent clinic that was forced by economic pressure to sell their clinic. They do this to ensure that they can still practice veterinary medicine and do what they love to do – treat, care for and save animals. It is usually the same staff that remain loyal to the clinic.
It is the corporate companies that dictate costings, treatment protocols and advertising. For the most, they are in control of Facebook, the websites, marketing protocols, vaccination and worming incentives. The nurses, vets and reception staff do not benefit from any of these promotions or extortionate prices, in fact a lot of the reception and nursing staff are on minimum wage. They work there, not for the financial perks of extortionate pricing but because they love the job; some have worked in that clinic since leaving school. They hate the mandatory price increases and changes to costing, they hate asking £85 for initial vaccinations.
Let's hold the corporate companies accountable for unreasonable pricing whilst supporting the vets, nurses, and admin staff that are subjected to their control and dictations. It was predicted that over half of the 174 vet clinics in Northern Ireland are corporately owned and that was in 2024. With Northern Ireland being an intimate and rather close-knit country, let's not allow corporate companies destroy this by causing clinic closures and loss of jobs. It is very dis-heartening to witness the struggles owners face with costs of treatment but also the effect this has on clinic-client relationships. Let’s hope the resolution to this is effective and beneficial for everyone involved.
