Doctors vs Vets: why it's better to be furry

This article represents the opinion of the author. You are encouraged to form your own.

© 2023 The Limes Medical Centre

The NHS is faulty.

I don’t think that is a controversial statement. Long wait times, short staffing, low pay; there’s issues that can’t be ignored. But it wasn’t until I adopted a cat and started visiting a vet that the extent of how bad it is hit me.

Typical experience trying to get a doctor’s appointment:

• Phone the doctor’s at 8am

• Spend 5 minutes listening to an out-of-date preamble

• Get told my place in the queue will be held and they will phone back later

• Phone the surgery again immediately

• Spend 5 minutes listening to an out-of-date preamble

• Wait in a queue for 15 minutes

• Get told there’s no appointments available and to phone back again tomorrow

Typical experience trying to get a vet appointment:

• Phone the vet at any point in the day

• Listen to a 15 second preamble

• Wait for the phone to ring a few times

• Receive a same day appointment a few hours from when I phoned

One of these experiences is undoubtedly more pleasant than the other.

But phoning for an appointment isn’t the only way talking to a healthcare professional differs.

I am unable to speak to my doctor without an appointment. I am able to speak to a vet without an appointment.

I do not know if this is a common practice but if I phone my cat’s vets for advice and the receptionists are unable to answer my query then they will leave a note for a vet to phone me back later in the day with an answer.

It isn't just the services provided that make me prefer vets, it’s the quality of the staff.

The receptionists at my cat’s vets also put the prescriptions together, this means that they have both enough knowledge to discuss medication and to answer some queries.

Meanwhile the receptionists at my doctor’s surgery are some of the most unhelpful people I have ever spoken to. I needed access to my medical records and they had no idea what I was talking about. They gave me a patient summary and insisted that it was up-to-date when it was missing years worth of information.

While I can say that a doctor was able to fix the issue, I can’t pretend that the records I received showed a great level of medical care. Rather, it appears the doctors I have visited hand out prescriptions as quickly as possible. All appointments are short and that’s if they even happen.

True story: a doctor once put on their system that they attempted to phone when, in fact, they made no such attempt.

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But the most difficult difference to watch is in the attitude, between when my cat has an appointment vs me. The vets always seem happy to help, they care enough to phone after the fact and make sure my cat is ok. Meanwhile, every doctor I have spoken to sounded like I was ordering an overly complicated drink.

Of course there is a saying that highlights the reason for all of these differences, “you get what you pay for.”

I have to pay for every vet visit, medication, surgery that my cat has. If I don’t want to pay out-of-pocket then I need to pay for insurance. The benefit of paying is that I know where all of the money is going, not blind faith that the government will allocate enough money to the NHS that year.

I’m not going to advocate removing the NHS but I will for better funding and a wiser allocation of resources. Or maybe, at a stretch, more knowledge of the private alternatives for pet quality healthcare. Otherwise I’d rather be furry.