Community Vets Covid 19 Update

We hope that you are all well and in good spirit. Helen and I have been working extremely hard to ensure that we continue to provide as normal a service as possible during the Covid 19 pandemic. However, it has been necessary to make changes to our normal service order to minimise the risks to our wonderful, dedicated staff, our clients and NHS and key workers. In summary, in order to comply with social distancing advice, we are currently avoiding:

Routine nail clipping.
Non essential neutering.
Non essential dental treatment.
Non essential surgery.
Routine weight checks.

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons also strongly advise against planned breeding of pets during the pandemic.

Services that will continue include:

Treatment of any pet that is in pain or suffering.
Supply of medication and food for ongoing conditions.
Supply of preventive parasite control.
Urgent surgical cases.
Euthanasia.
Vaccination courses for puppies, kittens. and rabbits.
Vaccination of adult cats, dogs and rabbits whose vaccine has expired by more than 3 months.

If you are unsure if your pet needs to be seen please contact us by phone to discuss.

We have also made changes to how we physically provide care to your pets. We will be asking all clients not to enter the surgery building but instead phone when you arrive (whether you are with or without a pet). If you are collecting medication or food we will bring them to you in your car and ask for payment by card over the phone. If you are bringing a pet please stay in your car with your pet, let us know you are here by phone and the vet will then phone you to take a clinical history. Once this has been done we will come to the car to collect your pet and take into the surgery for examination and treatment. We will be in phone contact during this time if necessary. We will then return your pet to you in your car with any necessary medication and then ask you to pay by card over the phone.

This all takes extra time so we are allowing 30 minutes for each consultation meaning that it takes us twice as long to see the same number of patients. After allowing time to complete any surgical procedures this leaves much less time for Helen and Richard to reply to phone or email queries. As a result it may take longer than normal to reply.

In order to help maintain good and efficient communications we are therefore trialling a new remote consulting service where you can book a specific time for a phone or video call with Helen or Richard if you are unsure whether your pet needs to attend the surgery. This may be to discuss a plan for an ongoing condition or to discuss a new condition where you feel that your pet may not need to attend the surgery. The fee for this will be £20.00 (members discount applies). If our advice is that you need to attend the surgery the subsequent consultation at the practice will be discounted so that the overall fee will be no more than than our standard consultation fee.

Home visits will also have to cease since we should not be entering your homes. If you are unable to bring your pet to the surgery due to illness or self isolation we will need to discuss with you individually how we treat your pet with minimal risk. WE WILL BE ABLE TO HELP so please phone to discuss.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. We are all part of the solution to the current pandemic and our actions can ultimately save lives.

Richard and Helen