Exciting Year Ahead for The Arundel Equine Hospital
Many years ago we recognized that we need to expand our hospital and the quest began to find a new site to relocate to, it took a long time to find a suitable location. We were very fortunate to be able to buy a farm and get permission to demolish the existing buildings allowing us to invest in the building of a brand new, purpose built hospital. This large investment in the practice will allow us to provide our clients and patients an even better level of care.
Why are we building a new hospital?
The Arundel Equine Hospital is one of the oldest dedicated equine practices in the country, it was founded in 1950 by Mike Ashton. The current hospital was developed on the existing site, because for years one of the biggest clients for the practice was the racehorse trainer based at Arundel Castle. Due to the number of horses and the limitations of diagnostic technology at that time, the clinic needed to be close to the racing stables for horses to be dealt with. Time has moved on, there is no longer a trainer at the Castle and with the progression of diagnostic and therapeutic technology it now means that we can do so much with horses in an ambulatory fashion, in their home stables. As such we feel that we can now move the hospital to a new location, one that is a little more central to the area covered by the practice and one with a much better road network for horse box access.
Not only do we want to move due to geographic concerns, we have reached a point where the current site is too small for the existing numbers of staff. It is also too small for us to develop the new services that we want to provide to our patients and clients.
Where is the new hospital located?
The new hospital will be located on the B2133, just half a mile off the A24 outside Ashington.
What services will be provided in the new hospital?
We currently provide a huge number of specialist equine veterinary services, but with the new hospital it will mean that we will be able to have the space to put in an MRI and a CT scanner. The MRI scanner will be the first new diagnostic unit to go in, this will allow us to perform standing MRI images. The next phase of the development will be the CT scanner.
As well as the new services, we will also have more stables, a smart new surfaced arena and purpose built lameness exam areas and a pleasant client waiting area, meeting rooms where the clinicians can sit quietly and go through the cases that come in with owners. The office space will be massively expanded as will the lab and the pharmacy that we currently have. There will be a conference room where we plan to hold a series of client information evenings.
What will it mean to clients who find themselves further away from the hospital as a consequence of the move?
The ambulatory care of the equine patients in the practice will not change when we move. The vets will still attend yards as they do now and we will still have our van buzzing around from yard to yard with all the digital diagnostic equipment such as x-ray, ultrasound and endoscopy. The only difference will be a box journey of a different length in the unfortunate circumstance when a patient needs to come into the hospital, however getting to the new clinic will be so much easier due to accessibility.
What will the new hospital be called?
The name for the new hospital has not been decided upon yet and is a hot topic of discussion!
When will the project be completed?
The building work is well on track, Rob van Pelt has been driving things forward at a rapid rate and we aim to be opening the new hospital in the middle of the summer 2017!!
