Policies

Medication and Drugs

Heathcote Veterinary Clinic endorses and upholds the principles of the Veterinary Practitioners Act 2003 and abides by the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 1966 and Regulations 2008.

Sometimes it is necessary to re-examine an animal before a new prescription of medication can be issued. This may be because the drugs have potential side effects with long term use, or because a pet may have a medical condition that needs to be monitored regularly such as heart disease, epilepsy or arthritis. For this reason it is recommended that animals on long term medications have a health check with our veterinarians every 6 months.

Many drugs have legal restrictions on their use. These medications can only be supplied under the direct authority of a registered veterinary practitioner and providing all of the following requirements have been satisfied:

• Restricted prescription drugs can only be dispensed to animals when they are directly under veterinary care.
• The client is well informed of the use of the drug.
• The welfare of the animal is always the highest priority when dispensing restricted drugs.
• Legal requirements, as outlined in the relevant legislation pertaining to drugs and medications, are adhered to and upheld.

Finance and Credit

At Heathcote Veterinary Clinic, ALL accounts are payable at the time of consultation or when a hospitalised patient is discharged.

We accept cash, cheque, Visa, MasterCard, Bankcard and EFTPOS.

If you are having financial difficulties, please speak to our staff at the earliest opportunity.

Financial Assistance may be available in the form of Care Credit, a revolving line of credit payment plan that allows you to make installments over time. For more information contact GE Care Credit.

Your Privacy

At Heathcote Veterinary Clinic we respect the privacy of our clients. The information we collect about our clients (their contact and account details), are strictly confidential and kept purely for our own personal records such that we can provide our clients with a high quality of products and services and maintain their current contact details.

Client information is not disclosed to anyone without prior permission. This includes other veterinarians and veterinary specialists who may provide services in connection with our own products and services. If a patient’s medical history is requested from another vet, we only disclose this information AFTER we have direct permission from the owner to do so.

We endeavour to keep our client and patient information as accurate as possible. Please contact us if you wish us to update any of your details.