Rest assured, despite the lack of evident progress in Pembury, work continues behind the scenes to get the building work there underway again. A few structural queries to overcome and increasing building costs have slowed things down a bit but we remain set on establishing surgical and imaging facilities there as soon as we can.

Look out for a few staff changes - two members of our nursing team, Alice and Maisie, have decided to go travelling. It's possible we may have them back among us in the future but for now we welcome Cerys and Phoebe to take up their roles. Cerys studied Animal Management at Hadlow College and has three chihuahuas and two cats at home. Phoebe's background is as a human dental nurse but her long-term goal has always been to work with animals.

There may also be some changes in the vet rota afoot - Israel, who has been working full-time with us for seven years now, is looking to spend more time with his family back home in Spain - more information when we have it!

The nursing team also grows evermore experienced: Abi and Ellie are now almost a year into their training to become Registered Veterinary Nurses and are both studying hard at Plumpton College when they are not with us. As a training practice we also continue to support external veterinary nursing students as a placement provider. We welcomed Eva to the team in April, she will be with us for a number of months over the coming year. We say a fond farewell to Elise who has now completed her 12-month placement with us; she returns to college for her final year of studies in September but you may see her from time-to-time as she will continue to work some shifts with us going forward.

In Pembury news, despite the lack of visible progress, rest assured we are still working towards completing the building project. Behind the scenes there are discussions taking place with the builders, architect, structural engineer and so on. The building work will enable surgical procedures to be carried out on-site. This will obviously improve the provision for our Pembury pet owners but will also increase the number of available surgical slots at the main clinic in Southborough.

As for the last few years, we opted not to send Christmas cards but donated the savings from this to
charity. This year our donation went to The Cinnamon Trust.

We welcome vet Ciara to the team, who joined us in November. In due course Ciara will be taking on Antonio's role. We are very grateful to Antonio for all his hard work and are very sad to be losing him - but offer our congratulations and best wishes to him as he embarks on an internship at North Downs Specialist Referrals.

We continue to invest in our training and development – vet Israel has embarked on a postgraduate course in exotics medicine to help ensure we are offering the best care to our smaller patients (rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, reptiles and more). Vet Antonio has now completed his postgraduate certificate in Soft Tissue Surgery and vet Gabriella is nearing the completion of her postgraduate certificate in Feline Practice.

Congratulations to nurse Ellie, who is now enrolled with Plumpton College and begins her 3-year course to become a Registered Veterinary Nurse. Abi is now almost a year into the same course and progressing well.

Pembury building update – the new building at the rear of the site is working well and we are hoping to push ahead with the renovations/improvements to the front building by the end of the year, hoping to have all the works completed by the summer of 2026.

In clinic news we have now moved into our new building in Pembury which has allowed us to significantly reduce our waiting list for new patients. Work continues on the refurbishment and expansion
of the original building which will further improve the facilities we can provide. Check out our website for an explanatory video of the work being undertaken. In staff news, congratulations to Ellie who has worked really hard to obtain her Veterinary Care Assistant Level 2 Diploma. We hope to enroll her soon on the 3-year Veterinary Nurse training course to become a Registered Veterinary Nurse. We welcome Isabelle who is also currently studying to become an RVN and will be undertaking a series of placements with us over the coming year as part of her training. We are committed to promoting learning and personal development in the veterinary profession so it is great to be able to offer these placements.

In staff news, we welcome Tamryn to the nursing team. Tamryn was previously working in human healthcare, assisting in the radiography department at Tunbridge Wells hospital. She will be helping to look after our in-patients, assisting the vets, keeping the clinic clean and tidy and you may also spot her on reception. Abi has now started her Veterinary Nursing Diploma course at Plumpton College and is adjusting to being back in a classroom one day each week. Finally, having had problems with the reliability of the postal service over the last year, we are planning to move to sending our vaccine reminders by email and/or text message. We would be grateful therefore if you could confirm we have your correct email address and mobile number - and if you would prefer we didn’t contact you in this way, please speak with the reception team.