Out-of-hours emergency appointments for pets are provided from our Alford practice. For farm and equine visits, we will attend your premises.

In specific circumstances, when in the interests of patient welfare and with an appropriate telephone assessment from the on-call vet we can do home visits for pets.

Out-of-hours emergency consultations are by appointment only. In the event of an emergency please phone the on call vet - our clinic in Alford is staffed as needed. If we have no inpatients there will not be a vet or nurse in the building so please don’t just turn up without phoning ahead.

Our emergency out-of-hours number is 07000780729. Please ensure your phone and network settings allow premium rate numbers. Calls to this line aren't charged at a premium rate but if you have calls to premium rate numbers blocked your phone won’t let you connect to us.

When hospitalised, patients will be monitored on a regular basis. Cases will be assessed on a by need basis and a care plan will be developed by the admitting vet to identify how frequently/intensively the patient needs to be monitored.

Overnight inpatients will be monitored as needed and if constant monitoring is required we will work with you to advise on and facilitate the safe transfer of your pet to the nearest 24hr hospital with capacity. Our practice doesn't always have a member of staff in the building and inpatients will be monitored as frequently as is appropriate for their needs.

Hospital sheets will be prepared by the Vet admitting the patient and filled out by the on-duty Vet or on-duty nurse as tasks are completed.

Owners will be updated twice daily (9am and 5pm) or more frequently if appropriate.

As a rural mixed practice, it is possible that the on call vet may be required to attend on farm emergencies which is why we also have an on call nurse to help provide continuity for our inpatients as needed.

The Veterinary Surgeon will assess the requirement for referral and discuss referral options with clients with regards to location of Referral practice and what specialist services they offer.

We will communicate with the referral practice with regards to timescale of consult and estimate of costs.

We will ensure the owner is aware of the likely costs implicated and of the referral protocol.

We will ensure the owner gives consent for all data (medical history, x-rays etc) to be transferred to the referral practice prior to sharing these details.

We will fill in any referral forms/send radiographs/history and any other information required.

If necessary, we will confirm appointments with the owner and referral practice.

We are always happy to offer a second opinion to any client of another clinic who seeks our opinion.

We are equally happy to share (with your permission) medical records with another vet or clinic if you would like a second opinion.

Our highly experienced team are also always happy to provide an internal second opinion. We often offer this option within consultations, but if we haven't offered and you would like us to please just let us know.

all prices are current as of 1/2/2023.

Initial small animal consultation for registered clients costs £39.00 and £34.20 for re-examinations.

Emergency out-of-hours fees for a consultation for registered clients are £75.00 from close of office-10pm and £112.20 from 10pm-9am. 

Farm and Equine examinations range from £16.50+VAT to £61.50+VAT depending on distance from the clinic and time of day.

Treatments will be charged in addition to the consultation fee as appropriate.

We ask all clients to reduce the amount of dirt, mud, and faecal contamination of our reception and consultation rooms where possible.

We will make every effort to maintain the highest levels of hygiene throughout the clinic and with respect to vets moving from farm to farm.

Our full biosecurity policy is here

If you would like to provide feedback or have a problem that needs resolving, we invite you to contact us directly. The Practice has a lead Veterinary Surgeon who takes overall responsibility for the practice, but all colleagues are well-trained to assist our clients. If the matter is something that the colleague cannot resolve themselves, they will ensure that the matter is passed to the appropriate person. 

When receiving informal feedback in this manner, we will always thank you for the feedback, and record it so that we can learn from it. We will work to resolve the matter fairly and be transparent and clear in our communication. We will Provide details of how to submit a formal complaint if appropriate.

When a complaint is made, we will endeavour to store the details of the complaint and the details of the complainant securely and anonymously for as long as it takes us to satisfactorily resolve the issue. We will then destroy the details of the complaint and complainant once it is no longer relevant or necessary for us to have it.

Our full complaints procedure can be found here

We store all of you data via our practice management software which is provided by "Vet IT".

This data is stored securely via the cloud and more information can be found here

Yes, we are happy to share a full copy of your pet’s medical history with you or any other vet / healthcare professional / insurance company you ask us to.

We will aim to do this as quickly as is practical during normal office hours.

If a vet or other healthcare professional contacts us requesting medical information relating to your pet, we will only release this information once we have had clear verbal or written consent from you to do so.

a link to our privacy policy is here

At Morven Veterinary practice we are striving to reduce our impact on the environment. We recognise that the health of animals, humans and the environment are inextricably linked, and that environmental degradation affects the health and wellbeing of employees, animal health & welfare and public health. We acknowledge that our operations influence the environment in terms of the use of raw materials, emissions, and waste generation. We are committed to the continual improvement of our environmental performance in relation to our services, product recommendations and operations and in Iine with environmental and professional legislation.

We aim to reduce the environmental impact of our clinical work and to encourage more sustainable practice amongst clients, colleagues, and suppliers across all aspects of our business. We aim to enable our staff to develop their sustainability knowledge and apply it in our shared goal of creating a more sustainable practice.

We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint by:

Practicing responsible resource use

Reducing our consumption of energy, water, fuel, anaesthetic gases, paper, and other resources

Promoting and supporting sustainable travel where possible

Improving waste management by reducing overall waste produced, recycling where possible, using materials with lower environmental impact.

Being sustainable in our operation

Keeping to a minimum the number and duration of elective surgical procedures where possible.

Reducing our use of single use plastics, disposable items and ecotoxic chemicals

Prioritising the health and wellbeing of our employees

Promoting biodiversity in our surroundings

Working with suppliers/contractors with sustainable goals

Using medicines responsibly

Promoting health plans and the responsible use of antimicrobials and parasiticides

Avoiding drug wastage and ensuring safe disposal

Utilising technology to sustainably enhance animal health and welfare.

Reducing unnecessary polypharmacy to minimise our carbon emissions.

We will continue to strive for further improvement by regularly reviewing our progress, setting targets and by making the environmental impact of any action a leading consideration in our decision-making process.

We are passionate about animal care and our staff provide the highest quality care for your ani-mals.

Our staff come to work because they both love and deeply care for animals. They work hard to provide a high-quality service to their clients and patients. We aim to always treat our clients courteously and expect our clients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way.

We believe that the relationship between a client and a Veterinary Practice is one that must be founded on the basis of mutual trust and confidence. We take a zero-tolerance approach to any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff. Not being able to get an ap-pointment at a convenient time for you, should not result in abuse towards our staff.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of types and examples of behaviour are unacceptable and may result in the termination of veterinary services by us:

· Using violent, threatening, or abusive language or behaviours towards our staff, our cli-ents or animals in our care

· Any attempted or actual physical violence towards staff, other clients or animals in our care such as pushing or shoving or the threat of causing physical harm

· Any attempted or actual damage to any property and/or equipment, and/or any personal property or belongings of our staff

· Verbal abuse of staff in any form whether in person or over the phone

· Making racial, sexual or any other kind of discriminatory remarks, implications or ges-tures

· Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress or intimidation to our staff. We en-deavour to respond to requests where possible and will provide explanations when re-quests cannot be met

· Making malicious allegations about our staff or other clients, whether in person or online

· Theft and other criminal activity, including fraud and obtaining veterinary medications or veterinary services fraudulently

· Non-compliance with our health and safety requirements

We have a three-stage process to dealing with unacceptable client behaviour in our practice:

Stage One: The client will be asked to stop and if necessary, to leave the premises. The prac-tice will issue a written warning regarding the unacceptable behaviour. A record of this written warning will be kept on the client’s records.

Stage Two: If a client’s unacceptable behaviour persists following receipt of the written warn-ing, we will terminate our client-practice relationship and Terms and Conditions resulting in the termination of all veterinary services to the client. The practice will issue a written notice of this termination of services. A record of the notice will be kept on the client’s records for a period of up to 7 years from the date of the written notice.

Please note, we reserve the right to issue our Stage One written warning and Stage Two written notice of service termination simultaneously in instances where the unacceptable behaviour is deemed excessive by the practice staff.

Stage Three: In the event that unacceptable behaviour persists after the termination of veteri-nary services, a final written notice will be issued. Incidents of threatening, abusive or violent

behaviour will be reported to the local Police Service and we will pursue appropriate legal ac-tion as needed.

We reserve the right to immediately terminate the provision of all veterinary services without fol-lowing the above three-stage process in certain instances. Examples of such instances are as follows (please note that this is a non-exhaustive list):

there is a threat to the physical safety of our staff, other clients or animals within our care;

the unacceptable client behaviour is wilfully discriminatory in nature; or

the relationship between the client and the vet has been irreparably damaged.

In such instances, we may involve the police or other applicable law enforcement, as needed.

We hope that you will understand and welcome this Zero Tolerance Policy, which is in place for the best interests of our hard-working staff as well as the clients and animals who we care for.

This policy applies throughout our practice, including any car park and grounds. It also applies to any member of staff away from the practice but only in so far as it relates to the provision of veterinary services.