Vets Now - Gateshead Avis 167

Brought out mini dachshund to the emergency out of hours service. From start to finish the staff were professional, but more importantly, they were caring, reassuring, and sympathetic to our emotional state.

Excellent prompt service and Vet took away all worries about the problem we were having with our dog.

Vet was fabulous. Price was disgusting. To charge £310 just for consultation only is criminal. There is nowhere else to go out of hours so the vet company is taking advantage.

I recently had to take my dog for an out-of-hours appointment, which is always stressful. I want to start by saying the vet who treated her was friendly, knowledgeable, and professional, and the staff were all courteous and kind. I have no issues at all with the level of care provided, and I understand that out-of-hours treatment comes at a premium.

However, after paying £330 for the visit and submitting an insurance claim, I was very surprised to be told that the practice would not correspond with my insurer unless I paid an additional £35 administration fee.

While I appreciate that some admin is involved, this charge feels excessive and unfair—especially when dealing with an already upsetting situation. It leaves a bad impression and feels like an unnecessary extra cost at a difficult time. I feel cheated, like I am being held to ransom, and I feel they are taking advantage of policy owners and their poorly pets!

Reluctantly, I have NO option but to pay the fee so I can proceed with the claim, but I strongly disagree with this policy. It would make me think twice about using this service again in future.

A great team clinically, but policies like this really let the overall experience down.

Used as emergency out of hours. Always easy to get seen, friendly and helpful staff. Despite being emergency service the prices are still a bit extreme.

We didn’t wait too long for my dog to get examined. They were very very helpful. Looked after my dog all night and tried their very best to help me with the Dog insurance.

Like any urgent visit to a vet with a much loved pet our visit was traumatic and at 4am . However, the care and support was amazing, the vet we saw was fantastic, she was amazing with George, she was clearly very capable and acted very promptly ensuring the pain George was experiencing was dealt with promptly and effectively. The vet conducted a very thorough examination and carefully explained everything to us as she went along, she was very informative and gave good practical sound advice. Prior to us leaving she advised that she would feed back to our own vets in the morning and advised us to see them without delay the next day. Sadly I did not think to take her name as I would like to have been able to mention her individually, Thank you, thank you so much for turning a massive trauma for us into a manageable situation and for giving out little man a comfortable night until further management could be arranged the next day.

Excellent care and good advice for our cat Poppie. Only down side is your pricing £300+ for an emergency consultation. Rather excessive even for a bank holiday.

While they were quick to see us, the cost was excessive: £302.50 for a consultation and £94.54 for just 15ml of Metacam. Out-of-hours care shouldn’t mean such extreme mark-ups, particularly on medication.
There were also basic shortcomings. Our cat’s temperature wasn’t taken, which was surprising, and there’s no separate waiting area for cats, adding unnecessary stress. On top of that, we were left waiting just to pay the bill, which only made the experience worse.

Overall, the care was efficient, but the pricing felt disproportionate and the experience unnecessarily stressful. No doubt Vets Now will respond with their usual line about “the higher cost of running an out-of-hours service” and their pricing policy but that completely misses the point.

During the night my dog had vomited and diorrhea containing a lot of fresh blood, to the point it was just blood squirting out of his bum. Rang Vets Now and the receptionist repeatedly said ‘is it not just diorrhea with some blood in it’, this became frustrating as I had repeatedly explained it was pure blood. I snapped as I was panicking and was told ‘you need to calm down’ but she wasn’t listening to what I was saying. Obviously panicked and upset I arrived and was seen within 10 mins, my dog squirted blood out of his bum, without even being examined the Vet said ‘Colitis’
I felt there was no compassion towards me or my dog, he checked his temp, weighed him and felt his stomach then started typing, back to me with no explanation of anything. I had to keep asking the questions as he was telling me nothing, like what do I do next etc. little eye contact and no reassurance or anything. I was in 10 minutes and bill was £451.00. Although I appreciated being seen, in these situations it would be nice to appear as if you like your job. I couldn’t wait to get in touch with my own Vet the following morning.

The vet we seen for our dog was brilliant! So caring and understanding and vet helpful and knowledgeable.

Great response

Used the emergency service on a Sunday in Gateshead. Charged £35 for insurance claim and this was never mentioned until they sent the invoice to email AFTER the bill was paid. Could not fault the vet but totally disagree with hidden charges that we had no idea where going to get put on as they were never discussed.

The staff, both on the telephone and in the vets, were fantastic. We took in a very sick puppy and the vet was very knowledgeable, and they took excellent care of her. Sadly, the outcome was not good, but they did their best for her and kept her comfortable until we could get her back to her own vet the next morning.

It IS expensive, but all you really care about is helping your pet get what they need. The waiting environment isn't great (though is very clean) - it's not very comfortable for long waits and there are no facilities (bring a bottle of water with you).

Given the situation that pet owners are in, taking dogs to the out of hours clinic, maybe automatic reminders to review Vets Now aren't appropriate. It wasn't what we wanted to see, having just lost a 17 month old dog.

Waited too long to see vet after arriving. Then got invoice wrong by overcharging. If I hadn't queried it no-one at practise had spotted it

Very efficient service from first contact to arrival and being seen by a vet.

My little chihuahua was taken in after escaping from home and possibly knocked over, thankfully someone found her and took here here, we were contacted and went through immediately there was no serious injury . The staff were all amazing, they saw to her straight away , did tests and luckily all was well, the vets was very busy on New Year’s Day but all staff were lovely , especially vet Lisa who I think took a shine to our tinkerbell

6 month old pup had been throwing up all night and had started to refuse water. Got the appointment quickly which was great, and she was checked over. But then, on top of the £300 consultation cost (explained on the phone, which was fine as I know out of hours is expensive), I was charged £52 for 200ml of Calpol, human child Calpol!

Great service

Long waiting time. Arrived at scheduled time before midday and appeared to get forgotten about. After waiting more than an hour was asked if I was waiting for medication when we hadn’t even seen a vet. Others were coming in long after us and got seen ahead of us. I appreciate that there is a triage system, however those seen ahead of us were all discharged. When I asked when we would be seen, the receptionist checked and said we were next, this wasn’t the case. We eventually saw a vet at 1:40pm. I was almost ready to walk out and go home. At £300 per emergency consult `I would expect to at least be kept informed of how long we would be waiting. It did seem as if we had been forgotten about. Obviously everyone that turns up at an emergency vet is concerned about their pets.