15 Dec 2018
Running the referral division for one of Europe’s largest corporate practice groups can be a complicated business. VBJ discovered just how complex when we paid a visit to CVS referrals director John Innes at the ChesterGates Referral Hospital Veterinary Specialists.
James Westgate
Job Title
John Innes, CVS.
For anyone looking to create a timeline for the corporate consolidation of the UK’s veterinary sector, the history of the CVS Group would be a good place to start.
Formed in 1999 following changes to UK law that removed restrictions on non-vets owning practices, during the past two decades CVS has grown from a single site operation to one of the true giants of the sector.
Beginning with the first acquisition – the Barton Veterinary Hospital in Canterbury – the group has been in a constant state of expansion and now owns almost 500 UK practice sites and a host of other support businesses, including an online pharmacy, pet crematoriums, a recruitment business and, of course, a growing network of referral practices.
It is these referral practices that concern John Innes, former professor of veterinary surgery at the University of Liverpool and one of the UK’s leading orthopaedic surgeons…
