North Downs Specialist Referrals (NDSR)

Vet - Hannah, absolutely lovely and we were really happy with her. Knowledgeable and helpful. I would say however , that on occasion it was a bit hard to get hold of her. I don't know if this was a receptionist issue or not, because if there is an urgent matter and the regular vet is not available, someone at reception should have the nouce to find another vet to deal with the matter! On some matters, it was v. hard to get information, and I think this area is sloppy - the receptionist team should not have let this happen, especially as the matter was urgent and this was communicated to the receptionist on several occasions.

Buildings - very nice and airy.

Reception staff - not so great. Like other users have mentioned, they do feel non-welcoming in general. Also, there are a huge number of them, yet they seem to be doing very little. I have asked them a number of times for help in getting hold of documentation, and its been a bit hit and miss (mostly miss). There were also quite a number of times where I felt I was chasing my tail, especially when I needed urgent vet advice and had to chase them for several days.

Finance team - I just want to groan - they have been really unhelpful - really, really difficult at times. As others have also mentioned, you do feel as an owner that they are very motivated to get their money out of you, but not to help facilitate this by sending the patient history, invoices and breakdowns to the insurance company. They seem very fixated on getting you as the owner to pay them an extra admin fee to do what should be part and parcel of their service. I was really disappointed with them in general and also as they specifically reneged on an agreement that I came to with their client care manager.

Client care manager - she is good at her job! Pleasant and tried genuinely to be helpful, but her other staff simply didn't stick to our agreement when she was away on annual leave. Also, no matter how much she wanted to help, the owning company have very restrictive policies.

Getting there - many narrow country lanes - I don't like doing the journey at all, but I've done it a number of times and I'm still alive and my car isn't trashed, so my advice is just take slowly when there's limited vision. I've seen giant trucks go down these lanes - thankfully we just missed being on the other side of the road, because I can't begin to imagine how we would have got past in some of the single lane bits.

My cat was treated well though, and ultimately she appears to have recovered (fingers crossed) from what was v. serious and a couple of years ago, would have killed her, so I'm grateful that she got treatment, but I have been to a number of vets and had a much better experience.

Had my puppy with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, local vets was very poor lacking speed and communication when this was a life threatening issue. North Downs were great, did all the needed scans and checks within 4 hours and even placed a feeding tube. She's now back up and running. Great service, great communication, can't fault anything.

My little puppy received excellent care. Her vet was caring and communicated with me very well so that I understood all of the issues. The reception staff were professional and empathetic. Thank you.

My dog came over for a heart scan and I cannot fault the professional service I received. The vet was attentive and could see was very passionate about her job. Would definitely recommend!

I had a very upsetting experience of NDSR - I have lodged a formal complaint with the RCVS.

Commitments were made (which I have in writing) to undertake surgery on my dog that was not technically feasible. In addition, the vet tried to withhold the consent form (for surgery) and would not provide a written quote for the work. I had to complain to the practice manager to get hold of this information.

When the day of surgery arrived, not only was the vet very late in seeing us (after we had travelled for hours to be there), but he had created a completely new consent form with a very different set of surgical procedures - in complete contradiction to what had been agreed.

It turns out that the surgery that he had originally promised (and raised our hopes with) was not technically possible - but he did not have the decency to inform me, or perhaps he just wanted to take more money for doing 'something' even though it was unnecessary and high risk.

A great deal of money was spent unnecessarily and more importantly, my dog went through painful and invasive tests unnecessarily. I walked out and contacted the RCVS.

It is only human to automatically trust vets - especially when your animal needs help - but I would ask anyone reading this to think as carefully as you can, make sure you get everything in writing and do not assume that all vets are honest or know what they are doing.