Alongside our focus on wellbeing at the practice we are passionate about creating a relationship with our clients built on trust and respect. This is incorporated into our “One Vet Policy”

Our expectation is that if you choose us as your primary veterinary service, we remain your sole primary veterinary provider. This helps us ensure consistency to provide your pet with the best care and advice possible and ensure that all your pet’s clinical notes are under one roof for cross referencing purposes.

The importance of this was exemplified recently when we treated a patient and prescribed a medication for a pet who, unbeknown to us, had visited another primary vet practice. This practice had prescribed other medications.  Thankfully, the owner telephoned to notify us just in time. If we had not been made aware of this the two medications would have clashed and caused quite significant side effects to the animal.

This is one of the reasons why our “One Vet Policy” is so important to us. Your pet’s health and wellbeing is always our primary focus and takes priority.

We encourage second opinions especially in tricky cases when diagnosis might not be easily achieved. This must be with a specialist referral centre, where professionals examining your animal will have higher qualifications and experience than us. These centres also have advanced equipment to better assist (MRI, CT scans etc).

If a referral to a specialist service is needed, this will be discussed and arranged during the consultation. Our out of hour’s provider (Vets Now Colchester) and the other veterinary specialists that we refer to, always communicate clinical notes with us and we do the same in return. This shared information gives your pet the best quality of care.

However, if a second opinion request to see another primary care veterinary practice that offers the same level of service as us, we feel concerned that this shows a lack of trust and see this as a break down in our relationship. We would therefore advise a change of vets and duty of care will be transferred.