Terms & Conditions

Thank you for registering with us, and entrusting your pets’ veterinary care to Southside Veterinary Clinic.

This document lays out our terms & conditions of business. Some aspects of these terms may not be relevant to you or your pets. Please call the practice if any further explanation or clarification is required and we’ll be very happy to help.

​

Registration & contact details
We are required to maintain accurate records of both our clients and patients. In order to do so, we will periodically ask you to confirm your registration and contact information is correct.

If your contact and/or personal information changes, please inform us so we can ensure our database is up to date, and you continue to receive important appointment and treatment notifications for your pet.

 

Legislation relating to veterinary care
Southside Veterinary Clinic will endeavour to provide veterinary services in accordance with all reasonable standards specified within the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Surgeons and Veterinary Nurses.

 

Veterinary Surgeons can only give advice, diagnose and prescribe therapies for patients that are under their care. Please see below for more information about this term:

​

-Being ‘under the care’ of a veterinary practice means that the veterinary surgeon must have access to the patient and information pertaining to their health and welfare, in order to make informed decisions about their healthcare needs.
-A patient cannot be considered under the vet’s care if there has been no physical examination, which means that a vet cannot prescribe a prescription only medicine to a patient if they have only conducted a consultation over the telephone or online.
-If a patient has been prescribed a prescription only medicine for a long-term medical condition, it is however possible to dispense more medicine without the patient having to be examined each and every time under the vets clinical judgement. 
-All repeat prescription requests need to be authorised by a veterinary surgeon before they can be dispensed.
-The minimum period of time between examinations is not legally defined. This decision is determined by the prescribing veterinary surgeon based on many factors specific to the patient and condition.

 

Supply of medicines for therapeutic purposes
Southside Veterinary Clinic will always where possible offer to supply the veterinary medicines that have been prescribed by the practice for your pet.

 

We will be willingly provide written prescriptions if you wish to obtain prescription only medicines from another veterinary surgeon, or pharmacy. These prescriptions will be emailed directly to the dispenser.

 

Please do bear in mind that any delay in the start of treatment in order to source supply elsewhere, may not however be in the best interest of your pets’ health and welfare. We will charge a fee to provide written prescriptions. It is a criminal offence to amend or create a written prescription yourself.  Anyone found to have submitted a fraudulent prescription will be reported to the VMD and risks being permanently excluded from Southside Veterinary Clinic.

Please note that we can only provide a written prescription for animals under our care, and we will charge a fee to examine all ongoing medical conditions, regardless of whether or not medications are supplied by the practice, or elsewhere via written prescription.

​

In order for our veterinary surgeons to dispense a prescription only preventative healthcare product, they must first complete a physical examination of your pet, to ensure they are fit and healthy prior to the administration of any medication.

 

Estimates:
We will be happy to provide an estimate as to the probable costs of a course of treatment. You accept that any estimate given can only be approximate and does not include any emergency procedures, follow-up treatment or investigations. We will provide ongoing updates on costs as required. You accept that you are liable for all costs incurred in the treatment of your animal.

 
All estimates are valid for 30 days.

 

Insurance claims:
Southside Veterinary Clinic strongly supports the principal of insuring animals against veterinary fees arising as a result of unexpected illness or accidents. Whilst legally we can’t make specific recommendations, we are very happy to provide more information about the different types of insurance policies offered for pets in the UK, please just ask a member of our team. 

 

Unless otherwise specified, you are expected to settle your account and then reclaim fees from your insurance company. We do not offer direct insurance claims - these are only processed with consent from senior management. 

We are happy to submit insurance claims on behalf of clients for patients under our care, however it is the client’s responsibility to maintain contact with the insurance company throughout the claims process, and to update the practice accordingly. We will always complete our insurance claim form obligations in a timely manner, assuming we have all the relevant information to do so.

It is the responsibility of the client to settle any outstanding account balances resulting from a partial insurance payment. If a direct claim has not been settled in full within sixty days from claim submission, it is the client’s responsibility to settle the full balance.

 

Accounts/ Payment:
Payment in full is due at the time of consultation / treatment. We accept payment by cash, debit/ credit card.

All fees, diets and drug charges are subject to Value Added Tax (VAT) at the current rate. We are unable to dispense medication unless paid for at the time of collection. We do not offer payment plans. 

 

Late payment or non-payment:
Any account not settled within 14 days will be sent a reminder.
Further reminders will incur administrative charges. Should the account remain outstanding beyond 30 days, Southside Veterinary Clinic reserves the right to refer any unsettled accounts to our debt collecting agency, unless otherwise agreed. Should the account remain outstanding beyond 30 days, the practice directors reserve the right to de-register the client and their pets.

 

Any further costs incurred in collecting the debt will be added to the balance. Should any credit card payment not be honoured by the provider, or any cash tendered and found to be counterfeit, this will result in the account being restored to the original sum with further charges added in respect of any bank fees and administrative costs.

 

Opening Hours
Monday: Friday 9am – 6pm
Saturday: 10am – 1pm
Sunday: closed

 

Out of Hours service
Out with our normal working hours emergencies are seen at Emergency Vets Glasgow or Glasgow University small animal hospital. Please call our usual number for a message with the contact details of the OOH providers. It is your responsibility to arrange transport to the appropriate premises. 

 

EVG: 64, Workzone, 37 Rosyth Rd, Glasgow G5 0YD, 0141 260 5555 

 

Glasgow University Small Animal Hospital: 464 Bearsden Rd, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 1QH, 0141 330 5848

 

Routine preventative treatment
It is the owner’s sole responsibility to ensure that they remain up to date with these services. We cannot always provide a reminder service for boosters and vaccines. An appointment for the puppy and kitten second vaccination should be made at the time of the initial vaccine.

 

Abuse and Tolerance Policy:
We’re sure this will never be a cause for concern, but want to be clear that just as our clients are entitled to appropriate standards of care, service and value for money from the practice, the directors expect that our staff will also receive appropriate standards of conduct and behaviour in return, whilst serving our clients. We have a zero tolerance policy on abuse towards our staff. Any abuse or aggressive behaviour towards our staff or other clients will result in withdrawal of services and de-registering any client found to have behaved inappropriately.

 

Ownership of clinical records:
Case records including (but not limited to) radiographs, ultrasound scans and similar documents are the property of, and will be retained by Southside Veterinary Clinic. Copies will be passed on request to another Veterinary Surgeon taking over treatment of the patient concerned, insurance companies on request for a claim, microchip companies to register the chip. 

 

Complaints and standards:
We pride ourselves in our high quality of service. Our friendly and competent team will always strive to provide the best possible care and service for both you and your pet. If however you feel dissatisfied or unhappy with any aspect of the service or care either you or your pet received from the practice or team, please contact our on-site directors and practice principals, Dr Layla Grimshaw or Dr Paul McErlean, to discuss this. 

Privacy Policy:
We believe that addressing consumer concerns about privacy online is important. We treat our website user information submitted through this Site as privileged and will not abuse this trust by providing this information to any third party. 

 

Data Protection:
We take your privacy very seriously and take great care to comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Act, to protect your personal information including any financial details you share with us. Southside Veterinary Clinic will only use your personal information in order to liaise with you regarding the healthcare of your pets.

We may need to disclose or share your personal information with regulatory authorities for the purpose of fraud prevention, and / or to comply with any legal or regulatory obligations.

From time to time it may be necessary for us to use the details you have provided to inform you about products or services relevant to your animal’s welfare, and therefore of assumed interest to you as a pet owner.

 

Your Personal Data will be;
•        Used fairly and lawfully 
•        Used for limited, specifically stated purposes
•        Used in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive accurate
•        Kept for no longer than is absolutely necessary
•        Handled according to people’s data protection rights
•        Kept safe and secure,
Southside Veterinary Clinic will not share your data with any other organisations without your permission or knowledge and only for the benefit of your animal’s welfare i.e. Your pet’s insurance company, microchip databases or a veterinary referral centre.

Personal information:


 

We only collect personal information on a voluntary basis. If you choose to sign up to our email newsletters, all that we require are a few simple contact details. We promise to:
•        Only contact you by the method you have selected
•        To never pass on your details to any other company without your expressed permission and then it would only be to provide you with an added benefit.
•        To always allow you to opt-out and unsubscribe at any time. 
Please note that you do not have to register or opt-in to this service to use our website.

If you have any questions about our privacy promise please contact us.

 

Confidentiality:
All our employees or subcontractors that may come in contact with personal information are bound by a confidentiality agreement to ensure that they exercise the same level of care when handling your personal information.

​

Sharing your information:   
The first thing we want to assure you of is that we do not, and will not, sell any of your personal data to any third party. However, we share your data with the following categories of companies, as an essential part of being able to provide our services to you:

• Referral practices, so that they can arrange appointments, tests, treatments and services if your pet needs to be referred to a hospital or specialist.
• Laboratories and Animal Crematoria, so that we can arrange tests, treatments and services and obtain results on your behalf.
• Your insurer, so that we can obtain permission to perform certain investigations and treatments at their expense. Also, to arrange payment for investigations and treatments provided.
• Banks and payment service providers, so that we can deal with payments and refunds where necessary.
• Credit reference and fraud prevention agencies, so that we can obtain information about you and help to detect and prevent fraud.
• Debt collection agencies where necessary, should any client fall behind with payments for the services we provide.
• Veterinary communication companies, who handle the automated reminder system so we can send you appointment and vaccine / preventative healthcare reminders, administrative information relating to the way we provide services to you, information about animal health issues relevant to you and marketing communications (if you agree). If you no longer wish to receive these notifications then you can unsubscribe by:

 

Clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any marketing or reminder email communication that we send you - Contacting the practice directly via phone or email and asking to be removed from our mailing list.

• Law enforcement agencies, if we receive a request from them to assist with any investigations.
• Other practices, if you decide to move to a new practice and want to transfer your information, but not without your specific consent If you would like to know more about the companies we may share personal data with, or how to find out more on how they will use your data, please contact us at the details below.

How long we keep your information 

 

We will keep your data for as long as you are a client of our practice and for as long as we are required to retain it to ensure we meet our legal obligations. You can contact us if you no longer wish to be a client and ask that we deactivate your account. However, we have a legal requirement to keep some of your personal data even after you have asked us to remove it. We will only keep what we absolutely need to, and only to make sure we can meet our legal or regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our Terms & Conditions.