15 Mar 2023
Basildon-based, £16 million referral centre receives International Society of Feline Medicine’s highest accolade for efforts including a “Cat Land” within the hospital.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
The team at Southfields Veterinary Specialists is celebrating achieving gold status from the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM).
The Basildon-based Linnaeus hospital, which opened at a cost of £16 million last summer, achieved the highest accolade award for its efforts to think cat – including the creation of a dedicated “Cat Land”.
Launched 10 years ago, the ISFM’s cat-friendly practice initiative encourages vet clinics to make changes to improve cat welfare.
Sarah Stam, Southfields’ operations manager, said: “This is the ultimate recognition and everyone at Southfields is thrilled that we’ve been accredited as a gold standard cat-friendly clinic by the ISFM.
“We worked extremely hard to ensure our new facilities are the very best they could be for our feline patients, and we’re delighted all that hard work and careful preparation has been rewarded.
“We fully understand cats are a very different species from dogs, with their own unique requirements.”
Ms Stam added: “They are more likely to become anxious and stressed in unfamiliar surroundings, so we deliberately created our ‘Cat Land’ area within the hospital.
“It was designed on the advice of veterinary specialist in behavioural medicine Sarah Heath and has its own entrance and exit at the hospital, a separate reception area, two wards, consultation rooms, prep rooms and treatment rooms.”
Facilities for cats include an exercise room where feline patients can also be encouraged to eat again following treatment, soothing music, pheromone plug-ins and no pictures of dogs on the walls. Southfields also has a feline team trained in cat handling.
