The Practice
The Practice was opened in 1973 and moved to the present location in Cromwell Road in 1976. The building was originally the local Health Centre and was vacated when the Whitstable Health Centre was established near the Harbour. Since then the building has been expanded and is now nearly twice as large but still a single story structure.
A section of the forecourt provides client off street parking.
Behind the surgery is a fully secure and enclosed garden with lawn for the exercising of canine patients.
All consultations are by appointment to try to keep waiting reduced as far as possible. The waiting room provides a comfortable environment with patients scales so that clients can check their pets’ weights. Clients are also welcome to check their own weights!
Each evening we put a list of available consultation times on this web site to enable clients to make their arrangements and then telephone as soon as the phone line is open (8am) and book the appointment time of their choice. Alternatively clients are able to email us in the evening or during the night or early morning and book an appointment time when the surgery is closed.
All consultations are taken by a qualified Veterinary Surgeon. This might be a somewhat outdated approach but we believe that most clients prefer to be seen by a Veterinary Surgeon and we are then able to prescribe the most appropriate product for the patient in all instances.
All patient records are computerised, Indeed we were one of the first Veterinary Practices in the UK to have computerised patient records when we set up our system in 1976. There have been many changes since!
If a patient has to be hospitalised he/she is taken through to our kennels area. We have two open kennels rooms and a small isolation ward with its own air extractor system to prevent any disease contamination.
Each patient is designated a particular kennel or cage and is retained in that unit for the duration of stay. At all times all cleaning and movement protocols are designed to minimise the risk of disease transfer within the hospitalisation wards.
The kennel units are in use every day. If a patient needs to be kept in over night staff are brought in to attend and monitor patients at all times. Ill patients are never left alone at night. We do not believe that the practice of leaving ill patients unattended, even if a member of staff is sleeping on the premises, is acceptable. If a patient is ill enough to be hospitalised over night then there should be constant supervision at all times.
We try to keep the kennels area as well as all treatment areas as sterile as possible and therefore, at the risk of upsetting a few clients, we really do not like to take pets’ own toys or blankets into the kennel area. They are given special toys when they are with us if necessary. We just try to keep everything as clean and free from contamination as possible.
When a patient is hospitalised for surgery the first stay in the kennels area whilst the preparations for the procedures to be completed are made. The next stage is to be checked and then any pre-medication is given. Prior to going into the operating theatre all patients are taken to the prep-room where they are prepared. This room is also used for taking ECGs and blood samples when necessary. This part of the building is used for radiography with very strict safety precautions being undertaken. A “red” light system is automatically turned on whenever an x-ray is about to be taken so that no unauthorised or unmonitored or protected person is in the vicinity of the exposure.
In addition to the usual facilities such as endoscopy, radiology and our own laboratory, we also have a cryosurgery unit which is used for treating some types of small tumour and some other conditions.
Our laboratory provides us with fast and efficient blood analysis. This is used daily and enables us to follow disease conditions as well as monitoring out diabetic and hyperthyroid cases quickly and efficiently.
All results from our in-house laboratory are analysed and are integrated with the case notes of our patients. If more sophisticated laboratory work is required then these are sent by first class mail to outside veterinary laboratories which are usually, but not always, based in the UK.
Many patients that stay with us are treated without major surgery but when this is necessary the patients are anaesthetised in the prep room and when they are under a stable anaesthetic they are taken to the sterile operating theatre. This operating theatre is kept as sterile as possible with the floor, surfaces and drains being swabbed every month to confirm sterility. If any swab ever shows the presence of any bacteria then the whole room is cleaned from top to bottom ands the testing procedure repeated. Not only are we checking for MRSA but for any bacteria that might or might not present a risk to our patients.
The patients are removed from the operating theatre and are taken to the prep-room for recovery where they can be more carefully monitored.
Standard anaesthesia includes a pre-medication followed by an induction by injection so that we can then place a tube into the windpipe through which an oxygen based anaesthetic is given. We believe that this procedure offers the safest anaesthetic process available and unless there are exceptional reasons we do not undertake operative procedures using the more commonly used “dissociative” drugs. We believe that our standard anaesthetic procedures provide more safety and better anaesthetic control and are in the patient’s best interest.
Our aim is to provide the best veterinary care that we are able. We try to work to help our patients but this can never be really possible without the help and support of our clients. Providing a high level of veterinary care for our patients is only possible with good liaison and support from our clients.
| Surgery Hours: | ||
| Monday | 9am to noon | 4pm to 7pm |
| Tuesday | 8am to noon | 4pm to 7pm |
| Wednesday | 9am to noon | 4pm to 7pm |
| Thursday | 8am to noon | 4pm to 7pm |
| Friday | 9am to noon | 4pm to 7pm |
| Saturday | 9am to noon | |
Practice telephone lines are open from 8am to 6pm on weekdays and from 8am to mid-day on Saturdays.
Full out of hours Emergency Service is provided by Vets Now - Canterbury: Telephone 01227 47 00 33