23 Jul 2021
Level of complaints to profession’s mediation service highest since its launch – with announcement coming the same week BVA reveals extent of client abuse against veterinary teams.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
Image: © Olivier Le Moal / Adobe Stock
Complaints to the profession’s mediation service hit a record high as COVID-19 put unprecedented strains on vet-client relations.
Referrals to the Veterinary Client Mediation Service (VCMS) increased 30% to 3,151 between 1 November 2019 and 31 October 2020.
The announcement came in the same week the BVA revealed 6 in 10 vets felt intimidated by owners. According to its latest Voice of the Profession Survey, 57% of vets in clinical practice – and 66% in companion animal practice – had felt intimidated by clients’ language or behaviour in the past 12 months. That was up 10 percentage points on 2019.
Funded by the RCVS, but run independently by Nockolds Resolution, the VCMS was set up in October 2016 to consider concerns below the college’s “serious professional conduct” threshold. It predominantly handles disputes around standard of care, fees or customer service.
In the annual report of its activity, VCMS head Jennie Jones – partner at Nockolds Resolution – said fewer complaints were received in April and May 2020.
She said the reduction “reflected the supportive and collaborative atmosphere within society as we ‘clapped for carers’ and dug deep as a nation to get through the pandemic”.
But in the summer, as restrictions first began easing, but social distancing in practices kept owners outside many clinics, she said “frustrations and stresses saw the consumer-professional relationship shift”.
The report anecdotally acknowledges some owners had financial pressures due to job losses, furlough and tighter personal budgets, but also that communication issues were exacerbated by COVID-secure measures and stresses felt by owners and practice teams.
It also reflects the demands placed on veterinary teams, through team rotations, furlough, illness or self-isolation, and that some staff who usually dealt with customer-facing tasks were either redeployed to the practice front line or off work.
Mrs Jones said: “The key challenges thrown up by the pandemic really centred around communication and interactions. We all had to react quickly to the changing situation, and apply COVID-secure measures to how we operated.
“For veterinary practices and clients this involved a major shift. For many years, practices had invested in making their premises welcoming and a source of useful information. For many the restrictions meant owners having to remain outside the consult room, and for many, outside the practice building.
“This appears to have contributed to the pressures felt in the relationship between veterinary practices and clients.”
Elsewhere in the VCMS’ annual report, Mrs Jones said her team had seen an early escalation in clients contacting the service ahead of raising a complaint with the individual practice.
She added social distancing meant practitioners missed out on the chance to pick up on body language and informal conversations that may have triggered earlier awareness of concerns or misunderstood situations.
She said: “The feedback conversation became even more critical as veterinary professionals were unable to communicate with owners during the examination (both verbally and non-verbally), which meant all the information regarding potential progression had to be conveyed during the feedback conversation.
“Many owners found the separation from their animal to be incredibly stressful, and coupled with the anxiety associated with their animal’s health, this increased the risk of conflict. It also meant clients had to trust the practice team to reassure their animal during examinations and treatment, and to then relay what had taken place.”
The resolution rate for the 10 most common situations in the report period was 80.7% – and 77% overall.
The VCMS concluded 3,077 referrals in 2019-20, a 26% increase on 2018-19. The vast majority of concluded complaints – 67% – were dealt with through pre-mediation advice and local resolution support, usually through telephone or email contact.
Owners declined mediation in 4% of cases, the practice declined it in 9% and the complaint concluded in mediation in 16%. Mediation concluded without resolution in 4% of cases.
