Veterinary Surgeon

Veterinary Surgeon Required for Mixed Practice Veterinary Surgery based in North Pennines (Cumbria & Durham).

Ideally this position would be for a vet with a few years’ experience. We are a team of 5 experienced vets and are well set up to support new graduates as we have 2 Vet GDP advisers.  

Salary starts at £32,000 (new grad) but rises significantly with yearly experience (+ practice 4x4 vehicle fully funded and personal use allowed)

The team is led by two experienced vets Karl and Rachel who are available for a chat about this position. We are a 3-centre practice, all of which are RCVS accredited SA, LA & EQ practice, with our main surgery in Alston, Cumbria, and branches at Stanhope and Allendale.

We live and work here in the rural North Pennines, which may not have the city lifestyles and facilities but is only 45-50mins away from Newcastle or Carlisle. If you love the countryside and hate traffic lights, then we have the perfect place for you. Our practice is a 5-vet team, and we all partake in the workload equally. The mix is about 65-70% small animal, 25-30% farm (beef & sheep) and 5% equine with a bit of seasonal game bird vet work there too.

We diagnose and treat the majority of our cases in-house, and are supported by referral options close by should the need arise. Further studies are actively encouraged with many of our vets currently undertaking certificates in medicine, surgery and emergency and critical care.

Support is the biggest requirement we have found from new graduates that have started with us in the last few years. We all need support, and in all different levels and shapes & sizes. There is no perfect template for how much or little support you need. We obviously encourage and work with the GDP programme, but also actively support personal and veterinary development daily vet work and also the OOH. Our new grads have a senior vet on call with them for as long as required, until they are happy and confident to tackle OOH work on their own (but then supported by a rota’d second on call non vet assistant). We have monthly vet clinical meetings to discuss cases among the clinical team and inform each other of ideas, changes and steps forward.

Our experienced vets run 15 minute appointments, and our new grads run 20 minute appointments to give time to find their consulting feet and get more confident in consulting & writing notes etc.

As a mixed practice, we do have all the usual small animal gear: DR dig X-Rays, Ultrasound (with visiting ultrasound Adv Practitioner MRCVS every 2 weeks to provide in house CPD training for our vets), in house lab with haematology, endoscope, in house orthopaedics performed, in house case work up encouraged and discussed regularly.

On the farm & equine side, we tackle all the good stuff, and we are registered with the medicines hub and are working towards getting our farm clients on board with reduction in antibiotic usage, we all carry lactate, glucose and ketones measuring machines in our cars, and do not have the stress of dairy practice SCCs and price battles!

Our package offer is a 4-day week, 1 in 5 on call weeknights and 1 in 5 weekends. Friday off after weekend on call. 28 days holidays per yr, practice 4x4 vehicle provided, CPD fully funded, RCVS & another subscription funded, Private health care, Pension scheme, overnight accommodation in main surgery if needed for in patient care, mobile phone costs paid, and OOH bonus scheme (after GDP completion).

More details of what we do and where we are and about us is available on our website: www.oldstonevets.com and we are more than happy to chat about the position with interested candidates. 01434 381792 and ask for Rachel or Karl.