VSOS Veterinary Transport Service

Patient Transport is available 7 days a week from 7am to 7pm. However, if you are needing transport outside these hours, please contact VSOS to see if we have the capability to assist in late night/early morning hours.

• Patient Transport is complimentary when you are referring a stable patient case to VSOS for further workup or admittance to hospital (e.g. surgery, medical procedure, emergency/critical care etc).
• Transport for stable patients that are just coming to VSOS for overnight monitoring where no consult to the owner is required and only a vet-to-vet handover is conducted, (e.g. post-op monitoring after surgery where the client will pick up the animal in the morning) will be charged at the following fees based on distance to VSOS:
  • > 10km of VSOS: $60
  • 11-20km: $100
  • 21km and over: $250

• Emergency transport is reserved for critical patients that are not stable where an additional nurse or vet is required to transport the sick patient.
• This will be charged at the following prices based on distance to VSOS:
  • • 10km from VSOS: $230
    • 11-20km: $450
    • 21km – 40km: $690
    • 40km away: $920
• An additional $1000 will be charged where a vet is required for transport.

Yes, the complimentary service and fees above are one way from your vet clinic to VSOS.

If you require transport of the discharged animal back to your clinic, then we can provide return service for stable patients at the same rate as overnight patient monitoring transport cost (within 10km of hospital $60; 11-20km $100; 21km and over $250)

• If this is the case and the VSOS transport has arrived and does not feel comfortable transporting back without further medical support, we may ask one of your staff to come with us back to VSOS in the transport van to give the animal its best chance to our hospital. You will then need to organise transport for your staff back to your clinic

To organise patient transport for your client, please call VSOS on (02) 8376 8767 and ask to speak to the appropriate department about conducting a vet-to-vet handover for patient transport. If you are unsure of what department your patient requires, please speak with our ER team and they will help triage the call.

• We will make sure we have all information has been gathered to conduct a smooth and safe transfer of case and history. During this vet-to-vet handover, we will have a cost estimate discussion that we will then ask you to relay to your client.
• During this discussion between vets, we will also identify and confirm that the transport is either stable or needs that extra ambulance level of care with additional hands-on deck.
• Once the transport and vet to vet handover is confirmed and costs estimate has also been discussed for you to relay to your client, we will then contact your client via phone to get the consent form signed (emailed) and a 50% deposit paid based on the cost estimate discussed in your conversation with our ER Vet team or surgery team etc.

No, we will only pick up from other vet clinics and vet hospitals as we require a vet to vet handover and communication between our vets and the patient’s case owner.

• For overnight monitoring updates, this is more case to case dependent. We are definitely more than happy to give nurse phone and text updates to the owner and this can be emphasised when you conduct a vet-to-vet handover that the owner is counting on updates from our staff. Please emphasise that the owner is of course also welcome to ring to check in on their animal.
• If complications do arise, one of our vets will call the owner directly and discuss options as well as the fees associated and take additional deposit if needed to continue life-saving care.
• For these overnight monitoring cases, your clinic/vet is still the case owner, so we try to make sure all information is relayed in a vet-to-vet handover back to your clinic in the morning as well as send a clinical summary of care back to you if that is preferred. This also depends on if the client is picking up in the morning or if the animal is being transported back to you. So please let us know how and what you prefer with that line of communication during the vet-to-vet handover.