One dog walker claims she is owed £ 750 by the NHS – after waiting to be paid for the past six weeks.
Bonnie Cowdrey of Chipping Norton accepts dogs when their owners are hospitalized and charges £ 25 a day for the service.
Ms. Cowdrey says this is not the first time she has had problems with payments from the NHS.
She claims that in May 2019 it took two to three months to get paid in two installments.
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Then, on March 1st of this year, she took over the care of a dog until March 31st.
She then sent an invoice on April 6, but it still hasn’t been paid.
“I brought the dog to my home and charged £ 25 a day. This is the standard rate. However, knowing the dog and the owner, I did not charge for food, which is usually supplied by the owner,” she said .
“I got a total detour, everyone is nice, but people passed my case from one person to another.
“I was told they were sorry it happened again.”
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Ms. Cowdrey said the problem caused other dog walkers to have doubts about offering their services.
She said, “I have to assure the client that I would take the dog back with me if he had to go back to the hospital in the future.
“I know a lot of dog walkers who are put off and say they’ll never do it again.”
Ms. Cowdrey has worked on behalf of the Nuffield Practice in Witney.
The center is part of the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
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A spokesman for the trust said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases for reasons of confidentiality.
“However, we are working to resolve the situation.”
The spokesman stated that people who are able to protect their property or take their own precautions to protect their property must do so.
However, the spokesperson added that under the Care Act, Oxford Health has a duty on mental health adults to take reasonable steps to protect people’s property when they are unable to do so by themselves when they are admitted to a care facility they are able to take over agreements themselves ”.
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Ms. Cowdrey has been a dog walker for nearly 20 years.
While the coronavirus pandemic has dried up much of her work, she said the Oxford Health case created more problems.
She said, “My work went out the window last year and I’m waiting for this money, it’s a lot of money.
“I couldn’t walk my clients’ dogs because they still work from home, so they enjoy walking their dogs.
“It was a tough year and although the last time it was stressful [in 2019] It’s more stressful this time after the year we’ve had.
“As for me, what happens to these animals is when people don’t want to take care of them and not everyone has a family or friend to take in an animal.
“For many people, their animal is just as important as their child, and this is the case with this customer.”
