Client Letter

To our valued clients,

Valley Vets is still facing unprecedented times, and we need to notify you of further urgent upcoming changes that may impact you as our valued clients.

In 2023, Valley Vets entered into a voluntary collective agreement with Unite the Union (Unite), and earlier this year we entered into salary negotiations. Whilst our salary reviews are always compared to industry benchmarking and benchmark well, the union proposed very significant increases, initially 25% increase in costs, expressing that pay and conditions in the veterinary sector as a whole are considered to be poor and wished our practice to be the practice to set new higher levels for the industry. 
Unfortunately, as a business we would not be able to sustain such increases within Valley Vets without a very high risk of redundancies and/or closing sites or passing on very large fee increases. We know that veterinary fees have already increased over time, and this scale of increase is not something we would be prepared to pass on to our clients. We are committed to improving terms and conditions for all our fantastic team and will continue to do so in a proportionate and sustainable way.

We are saddened to inform you that we have received notification from the union that they intend to extend their industrial action, and will be striking again from Tuesday 6th August until Friday 23rd August.

It gives us just one week between one strike ending and another strike starting, and so we feel that the disruption this would cause in trying to reopen our branch sites at Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly, Pentyrch and Gabalfa would be too significant. As such, our branches will remain closed until we are confident that we are able to stay open for a sustained period.
From 30th July to 5th August, we will be running a first opinion and emergency service from Valley Veterinary Hospital only. We will aim to run our usual service, as we would on any normal week, but based from a single site. We will make contact with any clients already booked in at branches that will be affected, in the hope that we can move those appointments across. During these week days we will be able to accept referrals in exotics, orthopaedic, physiotherapy and hydrotherapy, but our other services also remain paused until we are confident we can offer them for a sustained period.  Valley Veterinary Hospital

Unit 2C, Gwaelod y Garth Industrial Estate, Gwaelod y Garth, Cardiff. CF15 9SS
02920 001454

During the strike period, just as we are now, rest assured that we will be providing a 24/7 emergency service, and we will be working with our clients to accommodate appointments for pets that are non-urgent but time sensitive, such as second vaccinations, allergy injections etc as best we can. 

It goes without saying that our priority is, and always will be, our patients, clients and of course our team. We respect that union members within our team may exercise their right to participate in this industrial action, and so we are currently putting provisions in place to ensure that above all else, patient welfare isn't compromised. 
As previously communicated, we will not be sending this communication by letter unless this has been requested specifically. There will also be regular updates on our social media pages.

Thank you for your continued patience, and please don't hesitate to get in touch with our hospital team on 02920 001454 if you have any questions.

We very much appreciate and value your continued support. We only hope that you'll continue to stand by us, as many of you have done for so many years.

Yours faithfully,
Valley Vets