Month: March 2020

Coronavirus – Update

Posted on by sussex_admin

Further to the Prime Minister’s announcement last night and following the guidelines set out by The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA), our vets will be doing emergency work only with immediate effect.

As vets our primary role is to maintain the health and welfare of the equine patients under our care.  During the current National Emergency we are having to balance animal care with our responsibilities to the human health of the members of our team, as well as the health of our clients and the wider population.

We have already put into place many procedures to protect human health.  Most of our office team have been working from home for a number of days and this system has been functioning very well.  Our ambulatory vets are minimising their interaction with our hospital teams and we are following all the other distancing guidelines published by the Government and our professional bodies.

We have tried to maintain a normal service on the road and in the hospital, unfortunately we are now having to impose restrictions on the type of work that we are doing.

Please rest assured that we aim to maintain our usual excellent level of care for emergency cases 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the road.   The stud vet team will continue to handle all foalings and foal related issues, including post-foaling checks.  Our hospital will remain fully open to admit all types of emergency cases.  Our lab will also continue to process samples that are required to be run.

Our vets will be available on the phone (01903 883050) and by email (info@sussexequinehospital.co.uk) to offer any advice that you require.

If you are uncertain as to whether your horse fits the emergency criteria then please do call and discuss the situation with us.

Our office staff will also be on the end of the phone to deal with all your usual requirements.

As a practice, we will do all we can to maintain the balance between human health and animal health and welfare, as soon as we are permitted to we will be in a position to rapidly return to our normal routine service.

We wish all our clients the very best

The Directors

Coronavirus – Clients please read and share

Posted on by sussex_admin

The team at the Sussex Equine Hospital are working hard to maintain a normal 24/7 service to our equine patients and all our clients.  The Covid – 19 virus is a rapidly developing situation, we must balance our patient care with keeping our staff fit and well.

At this time we will be providing a totally normal service out on the road with our ambulatory team of vets. The hospital will also be running as normal admitting both routine and emergency patients for our full range of procedures.

In order to keep our service operating as smoothly as possible we are instigating the following changes to our daily business:

Office staff:

Our offices will be staffed on site with a skeleton team.  However the remainder of the office team will be working from home.  We have an amazing telephone and IT system that allows our staff to function at home as though they are sitting at desks close to each other in the office.  From the outside you will not notice anything different.

Ambulatory and stud vet teams:

Our Ambulatory and stud vets will still be out on the road as normal. Appointments can be made via the normal Practice number (01903 883050). In order to reduce contact between the ambulatory vets and the hospital staff they are being asked to come into the hospital only to restock their cars and drop off lab samples.

Hospital team:

We will continue to provide the full range of diagnostic, surgical and treatment procedures; however we will be admitting and discharging all patients in the car park, clients will not be allowed into the reception or yard until further notice. Please remain by your lorry and wait for a staff member to assist you.  Our gates will be operating on an out of hours setting, please pull up to the gate and press CALL and the gate will be opened for you.

Prescriptions:

If you need to come to the hospital to collect a prescription, please call in advance to allow us to prepare you drugs for collection. As normal payment will be required at the time of ordering.

Your responsibility:

We request that clients update us on their own health status. If you are unwell, in particular with a cough or elevated temperature, please let us know in advance of your appointment.  Alternative arrangements will need to be made for the handling of your horses, to protect the health of our vets and nurses.

Our responsibility:

We are monitoring the Government guidelines and will respond accordingly.  Our new distancing procedures have been put in place to reduce the risk, not only to our staff but also to our clients.  Any members of staff that become unwell will be isolated appropriately.

We are grateful for our clients’ continued support and will endeavour to maintain the highest standard of care and service during these the virus outbreak. 

We take this opportunity to wish all our clients the best of health in these very challenging times.