My pet had been under the 'care' of Wilsons at Bishop Auckland for over a year and had been hospitalised at the establishment twice in that time. In March 22 after tests, their medical intervention an... Read More
My pet had been under the 'care' of Wilsons at Bishop Auckland for over a year and had been hospitalised at the establishment twice in that time. In March 22 after tests, their medical intervention and 2 nights in their 'hospital' I was told that he possibly had Triaditus, but that this was not a definite diagnosis.
Between March 2022 and April 2023 the same symptoms occurred in him a few times when we attended their clinic again but he didn't have to be hospitalised.
Then in April 2023 his symptoms became much more severe. He appeared in a lot of pain as he wasn't moving, was very lethargic, sick, and generally not himself. This time I got a diagnosis for him of Pancreatitus. He was put on a drip again and stayed with Wilsons vet, Bishop Auckland overnight. I took him home the next day, he was given 5 days worth of Painkillers.
By this point I'd spent nearly £3000.
After the 5 days of painkillers were finished his symptoms slowly returned. He was lethargic, sick, appeared in pain, wouldnt eat or drink and was unsteady on his feet. It was very upsetting and distressing for me to see him so unwell and awful for him to be in so much discomfort.
On Sunday 23rd April I rang Wilsons vet, Bishop Auckland at 11.03 and explained the situation and asked for more painkillers. Reception told me that they were only open for emergencies on a weekend ( to me this was an emergency when my pet was suffering ) but she'd speak to the Vet and get her to ring me back. Nobody did, so at 14.50 hrs I rang them again.
Reception apologised and said they'd been very busy with emergencies and as soon as she got a chance to speak to one of the vets she'd get one of them to ring me. At 16.16 reception rang back to apologise and say that there was still no one available as they'd been very busy, and as the vets who are in don't know my pets case, would it be alright if the vet who dealt with him rang me the next day. ( I.e. Monday ) By now it was over 5 hours since I had first rang for help and had still not received any. I was extremely upset and at my wits end to see my pet in distress and not be able to get help for him.
This was an ongoing case but my pet had no continuity of care from Wilsons. I had a simple request for Painkillers. I obviously can't rely on a Vet practice if I can't contact them and get the necessary care required for my pet especially when they advertise being open for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Finally at 17.15 hours a Vet rang me back but by this time I had sourced some of the same painkillers elsewhere.
One of the reasons I was attracted to Wilsons Vet, Bishop Auckland is because they advertise on their website that they are open 7 days a week and this gave me a feeling of security to know that if I needed anything on a weekend they would be there. The opening hours that are advertised on their website are very misleading. I think this needs to be changed to give a truer picture to potential clients of the services they actually offer during those hours.
My pet was in unnecessary pain and distress because the practice did not attend to him when requested. They were too busy with 'emergencies' and obviously didn't have another Vet on call for situations such as this.
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I wrote to the practice and expressed my dissatisfaction at their service and suggested some changes to their working practices.
I received an applogy including the below statements :
On that day the Vets had had an unusually high level of emergencies to deal with and had not had time to look in to my pets care.
They have discussed in depth with the team what happened that day and how they can improve their service in the future so this doesn’t happen again.
They have taken on my points and reviewed their protocols appropriately.
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I do hope they have put into place some new practices to ensure that this never happens again with any other pet. Read Less