New year looking rather black for sick pets

Veterinary costs are going up in a terrifying way and the increased rate of VAT is going to mean another 2.5% hike on everything. 

We desperately need to increase our income so that we can raise the amount of subsidy we pay in order to reduce the amount that users of our animal clinic are charged by our veterinary service provider.

The way this works is that we pay the service provider (Cambridge University Vet School) a yearly fee and in return they staff our clinic and provide hospital facilities for inpatients back at the Vet School. Pet owners pay us a consulation fee of £10 and are charged by the University for drugs and operations at a special reduced rate. However the amount of the reduction depends on how much we are able to pay (currently it works out at about £54,000 p.a.). 

Unless we can increase our contribution fairly substantially so that we are subsidising a larger proportion of the fees I very much fear that the amount the University charges pet owners will be unaffordable for many very low income families.