Our Practice 

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We are passionate and proud to be the only independent Equine practice in Kent that has full hospitalisation and surgical services that does not outsource emergency cover.  The practice was established nearly 30 years ago but has been providing large animal services to the county of Kent for over 100 years.

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You will join our wonderful team at the most exciting time for the practice as we move into brand new purpose-built facilities and expand. Whilst we may be bias, we have an amazing team, wonderful clients and patients, a purpose-built clinic with full surgical facilities and can give you the opportunity to be an equine vet, have the support of the clinic team and have a hard stop to the day with the ability to plan and enjoy life outside of work. We ensure everyone looks forward to coming to work because our team create a fun, positive environment. We have an excellent client base of largely leisure horses with some competition/reproduction work, who appreciate our hard work. We aim to offer high standards of veterinary care both on the yard and in the brand-new purpose-built clinic.

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Our facilities include induction/recovery room, operating theatre, examination rooms, stocks, in-house laboratory, conference room, indoor stables, trot up, hard lunge area, menage and turn-out paddocks, and all the usual equipment (DR radiography, endoscopes, gastroscopes, motorised dentistry, ultrasound machines, laser, shockwave, ECG). Our people include an outstanding nursing, client care and management team to support you. We are a partner teaching practice with University of Surrey Vet School which gives added opportunities for professional development. Full time is 4 days a week 8.00am-5pm and part time and flexible ways of working can be accommodated where possible.

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Health and education, for both our team and our clients/horses, delivered in a caring and compassionate way, is at the heart of what we do because a healthy happy team and healthy happy patients means happy clients. 

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However, we don’t just prioritise our vets. It is a team approach and our nursing, client care and management team are all focused on looking after our patients (and clients) as if they were their own. They must love it as they have ALL been with us for 2-20+ years! Also, over 1/3 of our intern vets have stayed on in ambulatory roles!

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Our Values 

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Trust, positivity, learning and development, passion, teamwork, kindness, professionalism and loyalty are the values that our independent practice is built on. We look for these values in the people that join our team. We always want to keep getting better and expect our team to work to high standards, be willing and open to learn and develop their clinical and people skills and be open to giving and receiving feedback.

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We have worked hard to provide a great work life balance by offering genuine flexible working hours for those with young families or other commitments, and a good unique out of hours rota (1:6) so our team can enjoy their free time. We expect this to increase to 1 in 10 and are currently trialling a unique ‘out of hours’ system meaning that night duties are followed by a day off! The ambulatory team cover a week on night-call but don’t work daytime shifts on their duty week which commences on a Friday evening, the weekend and through to Thursday night followed by a long weekend before commencing five weeks with no nights on call.

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Food, coffee, tea and lunch breaks are a major part of our day and we understand the importance of a well fed team! Lunch breaks are blocked off in the diary.

 

What will your day look like?

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As an ambulatory vet every day is different!

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• We hold daily morning rounds to discuss clinical cases in a no-pressure environment to assist with continued progression of each team member and aid our communication.

• We have fortnightly team meetings, fortnightly journal clubs and monthly M&M rounds, and regular meetings to discuss how you want your career to develop.

• We are far from averse to a “meeting” in the pub, but also recognise we all like a hard stop to the day, so we can plan and enjoy our precious free time.

• Some days you will be out on the road doing dentals, vaccines and health checks

• Some days you will be out on the road performing lameness work-ups, scopes and shockwave therapy

• Other days you may be in the clinic doing several gastroscopes or working up one of your lameness cases

• Another day you may be helping in surgery/anaesthetising or driving out of our catchment area to do a vetting and X-rays for one of our clients

• Much of this will be determined by your own areas of interest but you can expect to start and finish on time (baring genuine emergencies), have a scheduled lunch break every day and have weekly scheduled paperwork time to catch up on the necessary admin jobs (no routine appointments after 4pm Monday-Thursday, or after 3.30pm Fridays).

• You are able to do your bookings and clinical notes daily on your ipad whilst on the road so you don’t get back to the clinic and have hours of paperwork.

• You will generate client invoices and ask for payments but you will have time at each visit to do this

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About You

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• You will have a passion for horses and their people

• Be an experienced equine vet who is confident working in an ambulatory role, as well as in the clinic

• Be positive and solution focused – we love it when our team come to us with new ideas and solutions to problems

• Have excellent communication skills

• Be willing to ask for back up when needed and able to provide the same for the rest of the team

• A certificate or strong desire to study towards a certificate in your area of interest, knowing you will be given time and support to study. A special interest in either orthopaedics, anaesthesia or dentistry would be a bonus

• MRCVS qualification, RCVS membership and a full driving licence are essential requirements.

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Working Hours & Rota 

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• Full time is 4 days a week 8am - 5pm

• Out of Hours is 1:6 weekends and 1 week night per week (currently sourcing OOH vet to extend rota to 1 in 10 and trialling new week nights, no days rota)

• Part-time/Flexible work is welcomed and hours can be discussed to suit your requirements

 

Location and Benefits

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Based out of our brand new clinic facility situated adjacent to the beautiful Woodland Trust on the North Downs in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, this is a mainly ambulatory role that covers most of Kent, with full support and back up from the clinic and ability to work up cases in clinic. You are 1 hour from London Victoria, 30 minutes from London Gatwick Airport and 30 minutes from the Coast.

Because our employees matter

We recognise that our team are fundamental to the success of our business. Investing in our team, premises and processes is at the heart of what we do. In addition to a competitive  salary of £42-65k depending on experience and qualifications, you will benefit from:

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• 33 days holiday including bank holidays + birthday off (if falls on working day)

• Unlimited CPD budget to include a fully funded certificate and time to study

• Workplace pension scheme

• BEVA & VDS membership

• Private Medical Insurance

• Initiatives focused on employee wellbeing including Veterinary Health cashplan and VetPerks employee benefits scheme

• 4x4 work car, mobile and iPad provided

• Enhanced family-friendly policies, including maternity/paternity/adoption/shared parental and surrogacy pay (depending on length of service)

• Discounted staff pet care

• Discounted gym membership

• Income protection policy

• Long term potential for the right candidate

 

Please contact Owner Katie Snalune on 01622 737884 or 07710 442273 for further information or informal discussions regarding the job. Formal applications should be submitted to office@newnhamcourtequine.co.uk with a CV and cover letter. All applications received in the strictest confidence.

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See https://www.facebook.com/keh.ncec.5/   or

www.newnhamcourtequine.co.uk to find out more.