August bank holiday opening hours
With the August Bank Holiday just around the corner, please note that our opening hours and how you access our care may differ from our usual Monday opening times.
If your pet needs any medication before the weekend, be sure to place your order early to allow our team sufficient time to process it. For our updated opening times and out-of-hours contact details, please visit our blog. Have a fun and safe long weekend! š¾
Prescriptions Update
On 1st September 2023 our regulatory body, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) introduced new guidance on prescribing prescription-only medicines. There was a grace period until 1st January 2024 for some classes of medication including parasiticides (flea, tick and worming treatments). The new guidance requires that a clinical assessment, which usually entails a physical examination of your pet, be performed every time antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals and parasiticides are prescribed.
The guidance is an important step towards ensuring responsible antimicrobial use and reduces the veterinary impact on the wider issues of global antibiotic resistance and decline in insect populations.
Your pet will need to have seen a Veterinary Surgeon for an in-person consultation to make an appropriate parasiticide treatment plan personalised to their lifestyle and risk. We will aim to do this at regular, routine vaccination and health check appointments to reduce the need for additional appointments. However, a separate āparasiticide check upā consultation may be required.
We will enter a prescription āauthorisationā of our recommendations onto your petās clinical notes, which can then be used to issue medication for the following 12-months. Once this authorisation is in place you can order parasiticide treatment as you previously have done so.
A āparasiticide check upā consultation is free for members of our Pet Health for Life (PH4L) plan.
For long term prescription medication which is not an antimicrobial/antiparasitic, our usual policy of requiring a regular examination usually every 3-6 months continues to apply. The medication review consultations will be charged at our usual fees.
You can read the full guidance from the RCVS on their website.
If you are not registered to our Pet Health for Life preventative healthcare plan, do check our website to find out how you can save money and relax, knowing your petās treatments are kept up to date.
Have you tried our online booking service? With no separate app and the choice of clinics to attend, arranging to see us couldnāt be easier!
We look forward to seeing you soon. Please contact us for further information.