Welcome to Orrell Equine, please take the time to read through our terms and conditions. 

 We provide 100% equine cover, 24 hours emergency on call, 365 days a year. We will endeavour to attend all emergencies within one hour (traffic allowing) and maintain close ties with a number of specialist referral centres and experts in many fields to provide you with a wide range of choices to best suit your animal's needs.

Our practice has adopted the following policy for all new clients registering with us, and highlighted several points for existing clients. New clients should have been asked to visit this page with reference to our terms when you registered with the office.

All new clients will be asked for and expected to pay for their calls and for work done at the time of, or before their visit. We do not extend credit to new clients any longer; (our reasons for this are outlined here). Payment may be given as a card payment to the office before or on the day of the call, or as cash to the attending vet. (Please remember the office can only give rough quotes for calls since the choice and use of treatments given by the vet will vary so subsequently so may the price.)

Existing clients used to being invoiced will be maintained with this privilege provided accounts are cleared quickly or regular payments are received. If we have to send out repeated reminders for payment we will unfortunately be left with no alternative but to remove this facility from that client. Please note our standard terms for payment are settlement within 30 days unless by arrangement with the office. 

It has been practice policy for several years to ask for payment on the day for all routine work like sedation and vaccinations. This policy applies across the board and helps with cash flow and enables us to keep our prices down. This works in everyones favour, avoids lots of unnecessary paperwork and genuinely keeps the cost lower.

Insurance claims are covered in our section on insurance above. It is our policy to request an insurance form quickly once you have decided to submit a claim. We will ask you for your full excess at the time you give us your form and charge a £25 + vat administration fee for completing the form and dealing with the majority of correspondences and requests, like medical histories, from your insurance companies. Larger reports and referral letters will be charged for separately. Please note all new clients will be asked to pay for ongoing treatment until a claim is accepted by your insurance company.

Invoices may be settled by cheque made payable to 'Orrell Equine', by credit/debit card over the phone directly to the office during office hours by cash to the vet or in the office, or by arrangement with the office via direct bill payment into our business account.

Please note we reserve the right to charge interest at 8% per annum on all outstanding accounts overdue by sixty days from the end of the month of issue unless they are subject to an insurance claim. Should we have to pursue an outstanding debt via the small claims court we will apply these interest charges.

All new clients wishing to register will be asked if they have been registered with another practice. Should it emerge that you owe another veterinary practice we will not register you until you have cleared all outstanding debts with them.

It is a general rule that we cannot accept a call from anyone below the age of eighteen, nor can we accept a call booking to look at a horse if you are not the owner unless we have received specific instruction from the owner before hand. In a genuine emergency this may be overlooked, however if not a pressing emergency we will insist upon the owner contacting us directly to authorise us examining the animal. Furthermore we cannot and will not accept promises of payment to examine an animal from persons who do not own that animal.

It is our policy to ask for payment for weekend calls and calls out of hours at the time of the call. This is a policy adopted by most veterinary practices outside of office hours and a necessary move to protect their businesses. Payment may be as cash or card details given to the attending vet. These card details will not be processed until the first normal working day after the call.

If you wish to seek a second opinion from us we will contact your first opinion practice as a matter of courtesy and to find out the medical history. We will usually request that you clear any outstanding bills with that practice before we consider your request. Similarly we will as a matter of courtesy pass on your medical history to another veterinary practice if you have asked them for a second opinion and will inform them of any outstanding balance on your account if you have one. This ensures correct medical histories are known about by the second opinion practice and helps to protect businesses financially.