Date of release: July 2021
Version: 1.0
Our aim is to provide you and your pet with the best possible service and care and in line with our professional code of conduct; to pursue our work with integrity respecting our responsibilities to the public, our clients and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. First and foremost we endeavour to ensure the health and welfare of animals entrusted to our care. We recognise and respect the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) initiative Principle 6.
We encourage feedback regarding all our services and constantly strive to make effective improvement where and when opportunities arise. The sooner we are made aware the sooner we can address the feedback and encourage prompt contact even if this is during current treatment.
IVC Evidensia believes in local leadership and management, we therefore recognise the local teams (your practice) are best equipped to manage feedback. In the first instance all complaints should be addressed to the local teams.
You can use one of the below methods to contact us:
When making a complaint, please provide the following information:
In general, if you have a concern, it is best to raise it as soon as possible – this will make it easier for us to investigate and resolve any matters, which are still ongoing.
If any of our colleagues were involved, it would be helpful if you can provide us with their names.
In the event your complaint is relating to an Out of Hours service or a Referral treatment that was not provided by our colleagues we would ask you to firstly direct the complaint to the relevant service provider. If you are not sure whether or not this was the case please ask any of our practice colleagues and we can quickly clarify to whom the complaint should be directed. We would also appreciate it if you could keep us updated on the outcome.
If your complaint is related to the provision of interest free credit please approach the providers - Care Free Credit - directly. Contact details are available on their website www.carefreecredit.co.uk. If it has taken Care Free Credit more than 8 weeks to resolve your complaint, or you aren’t satisfied with their decision, then you are entitled to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is a free service that resolves disputes between customers and financial services institutions. Please be aware that you’ll need to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of Care Free Credit’s final response letter.
You can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service by:
Phone: 0800 0 234 567
Web: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
We will treat any point you raise in confidentiality. Upon receiving your correspondence, we will acknowledge receipt as soon as practically possible and within 7 working days and may contact you to find out more. Please let us know the most convenient time to contact you. We may need to investigate the matter further before being able to reach a conclusion; if that is the case we will do our best to look into it as quickly as possible and will reply to you as soon as we are able. In normal circumstances, we would aim to have addressed your complaint within 14 working days of receiving it or provided an explanation for the delay in meeting this objective.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of this process, you may then raise your concern with our central team by emailing complaints@ivcevidensia.com. Your email will be escalated to the appropriate individual within the company.
Alternatively you may contact appropriate external bodies such as the Veterinary Client Mediation Service (www.vetmediation.co.uk) or the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (https://www.rcvs.org.uk/home/).
If you have any general comments please:
Email the practice email address (usually found in our contact page on the website). Alternatively write to the Practice either via post or hand in to reception.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to give us your thoughts.