Veterinary Surgeon

The Role

Mintlaw Vets are looking for an experienced, confident Veterinary Surgeon to join our friendly, supportive team, working full-time or part-time. The successful applicant will be replacing our Senior Vet who holds a surgery certificate so a keen interest in surgery would be beneficial.
 
The role will comprise a mix of both consulting and general surgery including dentistry with at least one dedicated ops day every week. We have fortnightly practice meetings both within our teams as well as whole team meetings. These are a great opportunity for discussion and sharing of thoughts and ideas to help us continuously grow as a team and improve our service.

The vets also have regular clinical meetings, roughly one every 3-4 months. These are optional and are scheduled to try & allow as many of the team as possible to attend. We provide dinner and use the time to chat through complex cases in more depth, share learning/cpd and review/update protocols. This month our clinical meeting bought together the vet and nurse teams to discuss prevention/management of hypotension under anaesthetic. 

Rota and Salary

Our vets work shifts between 09.00 and 20.00 Monday – Friday. The applicant would be required to work one regular 20.00 finish per week and work 1:4 weekends, Saturday 09.00 – 13.00, Sunday 09.00 – 12.30. Our Out of Hours is covered by Vets Now in Aberdeen. If a patient is admitted from evening surgery or a weekend surgery our late/weekend vet works it through to discharge or transfer to Vets Now.

We have a flexible approach towards rota patterns and working hours to help our team members maintain a healthy work life balance. We are very happy to discuss an individual’s needs and wishes to help in finding an arrangement that’s best fit for both parties.
 
Salary for the role is up to £65,000 depending on experience, welcome bonus of up to £1500 and relocation allowance up to £5,000 if required. 

About Us

Established in 1997, we are a busy, single site practice providing first opinion companion animal care, working from purpose-built premises in rural Aberdeenshire. Our practice team take pride in striving to provide the highest level of service and care to our clients and our patients. We have a progressive, forward-thinking team who genuinely enjoy working together. They are encouraged to follow & develop their own interests and passions. Further training or certificate study is encouraged and supported. We are an RCVS Accredited, VetGDP, VN Training Practice with ISFM Cat-Friendly Clinic Accreditation.

Our team use Fear Free techniques to help improve the experiences of both our clients and our patients. We have an established base of well bonded, pro-active clients many of whom have been with us since the start! One of our nurses is also convinced that our patients are better behaved than anywhere else that she's worked! We like to think that may well be true but mainly because we work hard to help them feel calmer and less fearful/anxious.

Our purpose-built building (2010) provides a great working environment. We have a light, spacious waiting room, 4 consulting rooms, one of which is a dedicated nurse consult room. There are 2 operating theatres (one of which is dirty ops/x-ray room). We have dental x-ray and currently have a vet and nurse proactively reviewing/upgrading our dentistry provision with the aim of introducing staged dental procedures and improved preventative dental care. Our in-house lab comprises Idexx analysers and microscope. We have ultrasound, therapeutic laser, endoscopy, electrocautery, suction, tonometer and selection of orthopaedic kit (sufficient to allow fracture repairs & cruciate surgery by MMP or TPLO).

For downtime, the team have a large kitchen/staffroom area with direct access to an enclosed yard area with outdoor kennels for our own dogs to be during the working day.

Our practice premises lie on the outskirts of Mintlaw, a village in rural Aberdeenshire. We are fortunate enough to have access to great outdoor spaces right from our door with The Formartine & Buchan Way, Aden Country Park and Pitfour Lake on our doorstep. It’s only a short drive to the coast, mountains and forests of Aberdeenshire. We’re also within easy reach of the city of Aberdeen (40 min drive).

Although accommodation is not currently available with this position, we are happy to assist in whatever way we can to determine suitable options, if required.

About the Team and Culture

Our team of 6 Vets (1 Full time, 5 Part time) work alongside a team of 6 RVNs (2 Full time, 4 Part time) and 2 VCAs (1 of whom is a trainee). The clinical team is supported by our awesome Reception team, Practice Administrator, Pharmacy Assistant and Practice Manager. In addition to a surgery certificate holder, we have a vet currently working towards her medicine certificate, two vets who are trained in acupuncture, an RVN who has a special interest in rabbit care and another who has helped us gain our ISFM Silver Cat-Friendly Clinic accreditation.
 
Routine consultations are 15 minutes long with double appointment slots allocated for more involved procedures. Breaks and lunch are scheduled into the diary and we do our utmost to ensure they happen! Our reception team are very proactive in adjusting the daylist to accommodate emergencies or consults that have overrun. It is very important to us to both ensure that, for our clients, we run as close to appointment time as possible whilst at the same time protecting our staff and ensuring that their scheduled breaks happen.

Our vets all have call slots scheduled in the diary, 30-60 minutes daily, depending on shift patterns. They are also allocated regular admin time in addition to this. Our nurse team support our vets doing second vaccinations, librela/cytopoint/solensia/zycortal/ARTU injections, blood samples, blood pressure assessments, therapeutic laser and bandage changes in addition to a wide range of nurse clinics (well puppy, weight management, dental, socialisation, diabetic).  
 
Some of our team members have also set up a Green Team with the aim of reducing our Practice’s environmental impact. 

Applicant Requirements

We are looking for a Vet who is capable, driven and who works well in a team. Someone with great interpersonal skills who takes pride in delivering high quality service and care to their clients and patients. We would very much welcome someone who wanted to bring their strengths and ideas to our team to help further expand our expertise and services.

Because our employees matter

We recognise that our people are fundamental to the success of our business. Investing in our people, premises and processes is at the heart of what we do. In addition to a competitive base salary, you will benefit from -

Work-life balance

• 6.8 weeks annual leave
• Increasing holiday allowance based on length of service
• Your birthday as a paid day off

Wellbeing

• Private medical insurance
• Enhanced family-friendly policies, including maternity/paternity/adoption/shared parental and surrogacy pay
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Initiatives focused on employee wellbeing
• Non-accidental injury support

Development

• £1,350 CPD allowance with 40 hours paid pro rata
• Certificate support
• Learning and development opportunities via the IVC Evidensia Academy
• Access to Vetlexicon – our online encyclopaedia provider
• All our Vets & Nurses can apply for research funding
• All our Vets get £1000 per annum to spend via our Care Fund
• Infection Prevention and Control Programme
• Quality Improvement Programme

Professional Memberships

• BVA membership
• VDS cover
• RCVS fees

Additional

• Pawsome Benefits – reward gateway giving discounts and cashback with 100’s of retailers
• Pension – 5% Employee/3% Employer
• Discounted staff pet care

 As a BAME and LGBTQ+ inclusive employer, we are keen to hear from candidates from all minority and diverse groups. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are keen to hear from candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions and would be happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments needed during the recruitment process.
 
If this position is of interest to you then please get in touch.

Please quote BH8796 when you apply.

To apply, please send your CV to Margaret via the Apply Now button or call 07977242572 for more information.