Examination of Witnesses (Questions 60-61)
Monday 12 May 2003
MR ROGER
EDDY, MISS
JANE HERN
AND DR
BARRY JOHNSON
Q60 Chairman: Do you think there
should be a menu of charges so that farmers can see what is what?
In other words, the cost of the medicine and the cost of the treatment?
Dr Johnson: Absolutely, and most
practices have always done that—itemising the cost of the
drugs, the cost of the visit, the cost of the consultation, the
hourly rate. Those are freely available.
Q61 Mr Lazarowicz: Will you be modifying
your guide to professional conduct to take account of the Competition
Commission criteria of restrictions on the veterinary surgeons
publishing the prices they charge for medicines? Would you consider
changing your code of practice?
Mr Eddy: There are a large number
of admirable recommendations from the Competition Commission and
a number of them we have no problem with at all, and if they want
us to put a notice board up with 10 commonly used medicines and
their prices we have no problem with that. We are going to be
changing our guidance on advertising in the next review of the
guide, and we have no problem there either. The problem we do
have, and again this is really the BVA but it affects all those
in practice, is being told that you cannot charge for work that
you are doing, and that we found rather odd.
Chairman: Gentlemen, thank you very much
indeed for your contributions. You are not able to take away that
which you have said but if, as a result of our questioning, there
are further points you want to send to us to emphasise points
in your existing evidence or additional points we would be pleased
to hear from you.
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