Practice Profile: Highland Vet Referrals

The Scottish Highlands might not be the first place you would expect to find a veterinary referral centre.

Remote and inaccessible, the area has one of the lowest population densities in the UK, and while Inverness is one of the UK’s fastest growing cities, with a population of more than 60,000, that figure accounts for more than a quarter of the people living and working in the Scottish Highlands.

But despite the remoteness and the relative lack of people, plenty of pets can clearly be found, and since 2014 the referral arm of Crown Vets – a three-site first opinion practice – has flourished.

During the past eight years, its caseload has steadily grown to the point where the referral operation became so busy that Crown Vet Referrals was moved to a brand new building in December last year and given a brand-new name: Highland Vet Referrals.

While still part of the Crown Vets group, it was felt the new name better reflected the remit of a business that serves practices from right across the Highlands and Islands, with some clients coming from as far afield as the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and even the Shetland Islands.

It’s a large catchment area and this has certainly helped drive the growth of the business, which has seen 1,000 referral clients in the past 12 months, some of whom think nothing of travelling up to 20 hours by boat, train and car to bring their pets for treatment.

It can be a long haul, but it is a trip many feel worth making, as practice director practice Sandra Campbell explained.

She said: “Crown Vets has been in Inverness since the 1970s, but the referral side has been up and running since 2014, and during that time, it has grown to the point where about four years ago, we started to think about moving out of the Crown Vets first opinion site in Argyll Street.

“Demand for the services we offer has grown consistently, thanks in large part to the work of our orthopaedic and soft tissue vet Bruce Nevill, but we also have a visiting dermatologist [Marcel Kovalik] and a pain management vet [Fergus Coutts], which means we cover most of the main areas our clients need in this part of the world.”

Dr Nevill is supported by the practice’s other full-time vet, Daniel Thom, as well as two full-time nurses – soon to be four – two referral administrators and a veterinary care assistant.

Sandra added: “We are not the biggest and there are obviously referral centres in other parts of the UK that offer everything under the sun, but economically, that wouldn’t work for us.

“Of course, we are always looking to see where the demands are, and if there is anything else that would be worthwhile us getting different visiting surgeons to cover. So, we have been asking all the first opinion practices what they might need and what they might like to be able to offer their clients in the local region, rather than having to send people down to the central belt.

“But having only just moved into our new building and being a growing business in an area of relatively low population, we will need to be careful before we commit to expanding the services we offer.”

Strength to strength

Crown Vets had been in independent hands for more than three decades before it became the first practice in Scotland to be acquired by IVC Evidensia, almost 10 years ago.

During that time, the practice has gone from strength to strength and when the time came to relocate, being part of a bigger group certainly provided benefits.

Once a new-built site in a prominent position on the city’s southern distributary road (the A9) had been secured, it took just 12 weeks for the 3,300 sq ft building to be transformed by the IVC build team.

The result is a bright and airy practice with a large reception space with segregated dog
and cat waiting areas, three consult rooms and two operating theatres.

The new building is fully air conditioned and also boasts a large outdoor exercise area for patients, a large, well-equipped lab and a 32-slice Siemens CT scanner, a new addition to the business and an investment that is already starting to pay dividends.

Sandra added: “The CT machine has proved to be in constant use and obviously all the first opinion practices in the area are encouraged to come and make use of it, too – whether that is sending a case up for a scan and then treatment, or just only a purely outpatient basis.

“The local practices are starting to use that service, it really started in earnest in January and we are using it a lot already, and expect that demand to continue to grow, as there are obviously not many CT scanners in this part of the world.”

Recruitment and retention

It would be easy to think not many vets can be found in this part of the world, either, but recruitment and retention doesn’t appear to be a problem for Crown Vets, or the team at Highland Vet Referrals.

And that is, perhaps, not surprising, with a number of recent surveys finding Inverness to be the happiest place to live in Scotland and the fifth-highest ranked city in the UK when it comes to quality of life.

Surrounded by glorious mountain scenery and sited on the mouth of the River Ness, just a few miles from the spectacular east coast of Scotland, it is easy to see why people who come to this part of the world tend to stay.

“We are quite lucky when it comes to recruitment, even though we are quite removed from built-up areas, as we are able to attract a lot of vets to the region due to the locality,” added Sandra.

“We get people who come up here who want to ski, they want to mountain climb, they want to run up hills and enjoy the outdoors, and from that point of view, it offers everything.

“So, we can attract vets that way. The majority of our vets are not from the Highland region, but once they move up here, they tend not to leave, so we are lucky with retention that way, too.”

Highlands and Islands

Not that local competition does not exist for both vets and clients, with Scottish Vet Referrals also based in the city on the campus of Inverness College – part of the University of the Highlands and Islands.

But, as Sandra explained, the two practices do not directly compete for clients.

“They have been going for about six years now and while they have a lot of visiting surgeons covering other disciplines, their main focus is ophthalmology,” she said.

“And there are plenty of clients to go round, even if many of them have to travel for hours to get to us. We pick up clients from the Highland region, including the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland – so, all the main islands off Scotland.

“And people in this region of the country are fairly used to travel for basic necessities – we tend to find people come over to Inverness once a month to do the big shop, so they are quite used to travelling long distances for various reasons.

“So, coming to a vet this far away may seem a far stretch if you were further south, in a more built-up part of the country, but for people up here, it is just part of life and we get people bringing their pets from all over.

“We have had a client bring in their dog from Shetland, which is I think the furthest anyone has come with their pet. That requires a ferry from Shetland to Orkney and then a ferry from Orkney to the mainland, then a two-hour drive down the A9, so that is getting on for a 20-hour trip for that client to bring their dog to us.”

Transparent approach

While Highland Vet Referrals does benefit from a regular source of work via Crown Vets and the small number of IVC-owned practices in the area, a large number of clients are referred over from independent practices that are not part of the IVC group.

Rebranding away from Crown Vets has certainly helped in this respect, with some vets understandably concerned about sending cases to a referral centre with such a well-established first opinion operation.

The practice also has a clear anti-poaching policy, which dictates that it will not treat an animal for any condition other than the one for which it was referred to the practice, for at least one year.

It is a transparent approach that has gone down well with practices in the region, which in turn has allowed Highland Vet Referrals to continue growing.

But this will never be the next Southfields, Willows or IVC’s next big referral project, Blaise Referrals in Birmingham.

And while some additional services may be added to the offering, it seems Highland Vet Referrals will remain relatively small, but big enough to fill its niche.

Sandra said: “We have to see what the demands will be based on where we are; it is not ever going to be a big hospital such as you would get further down the country or in England; it is always going to be about catering for the needs of the local practices and their clients.

“It is not a huge practice – it is only three consult rooms and two theatres – and it is not something that we are going to look to expand massively, certainly not in the short term. It is all about looking at what we can do to support the first opinion practices in the area.”