18 Nov 2025
Director of veterinary services Paul Manktelow admitted the risk that some owners might not be able to access treatment under the new system was “a huge worry”.
Allister Webb
Job Title
A leading animal charity has announced plans to scrap its free veterinary care provision, after more than a century, amid fears over a multi-million pound funding shortfall.
Blue Cross has claimed the move is necessary to prevent service cuts, arguing that rising costs have made its present structure unsustainable.
From January, all the charity’s clients will be served under a new, single pricing structure that it said will offer “heavily discounted” care.
Speaking exclusively to Vet Times, director of veterinary services Paul Manktelow admitted the risk that some owners might not be able to access treatment under the new system was “a huge worry”.
But he added: “We have no choice. There’s no skirting around that issue. Our financial pressures are driving us to have to make changes.
“The alternative was we close services and that’s not something we feel is the right thing to do.”
Although Blue Cross raises around £8.4 million a year to fund its veterinary services, it now estimates it is facing a funding gap of around £3.5 million next year alone. It also expects its costs to reach £12.2 million a year by 2027, having risen from £10.2 million only two years ago.
Until now, the group has provided a predominantly free service to what it describes as category “A” clients who are on means-tested government benefits.
A category “B” of discounted rates, intended to apply to owners who were also on benefits but with slightly higher incomes, was introduced in 2021. But the charity said research, which it conducted in conjunction with organisations including the Department for Work and Pensions and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, had indicated that owners who were being asked to pay under the existing regime were “just as poor” as those who were not.
Dr Manktelow admitted the change was a “big step”, adding: “In the 125-year history of Blue Cross, we’ve always been there and offered free veterinary services to people most in need.
“But it’s simply not sustainable in terms of what we can afford and the cost of running the service.”
He said the proportion of owners who were being asked to pay accounted for around 20% of all service users and that the new system would be “more equitable”.
The charity’s analysis also warned the demand for lower cost veterinary treatment was only likely to grow amid trends indicating that the third of the UK population with the lowest incomes were getting poorer.
And Dr Manktelow revealed that more than 1,600 practices are now registered with the charity’s veterinary care fund, compared to around 70 who initially signed up when it was launched two years ago.
He said: “We’re having to close this scheme sort of mid-month every month because we’ve run out of budget.
“We’ve got the evidence now to show that this is an impending pet welfare crisis if I’m just going to be really blunt about it.”
The new approach has been outlined only weeks after the charity warned that provisional remedies proposed by the Competition and Markets Authority may not be enough to make care more accessible.
But Dr Manktelow has welcomed recent calls by RCVS Knowledge for the development of a new roadmap to support the delivery of contextualised care.
The full interview is available in the podcast below.
