Complaints Policy

At Blackwater Veterinary Clinics, our aim is to provide you and your pet and/or farm animals, with the best possible service and care and in line with our professional code of conduct; to pursue our work with integrity respecting our responsibilities to the public, our clients and the Veterinary Council of Ireland. First and foremost we endeavour to ensure the health and welfare of animals entrusted to our care.

We encourage feedback regarding all our services and constantly strive to make effective improvement where and when opportunities arise. The sooner we are made aware, the sooner we can address the feedback and encourage prompt contact even if this is during current treatment.

How do I give feedback?

You can use one of the below methods to contact us:

Tell us in person – In the first instance, we would encourage you to tell the person in charge of your pet’s care; they may be able to resolve your concern there and then. If they are unavailable, please discuss your concerns with any member of our team who will be happy to help. We would much rather talk with you to help you resolve your concerns.
Email us using our contact form on our contact page.
Telephone us on the contact number given on on our contact page web page.
Write to us at the Practice - see contact page for details of our address.
Social media - links to our social media are provided on our contact page. Although we do not consider this to be an appropriate medium for complaint management, we do welcome your feedback there and we would encourage respectful and appropriate use of these media channels for communicating with us.

What information do I need to provide?

When making a complaint, please provide the following information:

Your name, address and preferred and convenient contact telephone and email
The name of your pet
The date on which you last attended the clinic
The location of our relevant clinic
A brief description of your concerns
A summary of what in your opinion we can do to best deal with your concerns

In general, if you have a concern, it is best to raise it as soon as possible – this will make it easier for us to investigate and resolve any matters, which are still ongoing. If any of our colleagues were involved, it would be helpful if you can provide us with their names.

What will you do when you receive my complaint?

We will treat any point you raise in confidentiality. Upon receiving your correspondence, we will acknowledge receipt as soon as practically possible and within 7 working days and may contact you to find out more. Please let us know the most convenient time to contact you.

We may need to investigate the matter further before being able to reach a conclusion; if that is the case we will do our best to look into it as quickly as possible and will reply to you as soon as we are able. In normal circumstances, we would aim to have addressed your complaint within 14 working days of receiving it or provided an explanation for the delay in meeting this objective.

What if I am unhappy with the outcome?

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of this process, you may then raise your concern with our owner John Drum by emailing [email protected]

General feedback

If you have any general comments please email our clinic using our contact form on our website Contact Page. Alternatively write to our Practice either via post or delivery by hand to one of our receptions, details are provided on our Contact Page.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to give us your thoughts.