Remote consultations

After lockdown began, the entire country began shielding, self-isolating or socially distancing. Traditionally, veterinary treatment requires face-to-face contact. But with a high proportion of PDSA clients in high-risk categories, and the government urging everyone to prevent the spread of the virus, it became vital that we adapted to a safer way of providing veterinary care to pets in need. Equally, it was crucial to protect our staff from Covid-19.

Prior to lockdown, thanks to player support, we had planned a trial of remote consultations in a handful of our Pet Hospitals. This trial meant we could quickly set up the systems needed to rapidly roll out remote consultations for non-urgent care across our 48 Pet Hospitals. Thanks to players in just two weeks all of our non-urgent consultations became remote. By the end of the year, our teams had completed 594,048 remote consultations over the phone for pets that otherwise may have gone without the veterinary care they needed.  

Our clients expressed their gratitude at being able to access veterinary care without leaving the safety of their own home. Over two thirds (70%) have told us they’d like to continue remote consultations after the pandemic. 

Player funding also allowed us to run a six-month remote out of hours (OOH) service trial with an external company in 2020, with the aim of reducing unnecessary travel to the Pet Hospitals. Thanks to players 3,628 remote OOH consultations took place between March and September 2020, of these less than a third (29%) required a face-to-face OOH emergency appointment. The trial was so successful we have extended it for a further 6 months, with the potential to roll it out nationally in 2021. 

Testimonials