3 Apr 2020
Five feet of floodwater from the River Taff destroyed the nine-month-old £2 million facility during Storm Dennis, but staff are already set to open the doors for emergency cases.
David Woodmansey
Job Title
Hospital managers Chris Butler and Claire Ashworth in the newly refurbished prep room.
A new veterinary hospital completely devastated by Storm Dennis is set to reopen for emergency cases during the coronavirus crisis.
Valley Veterinary Hospital in Gwaelod-y-Garth near Cardiff will re-open its 24-hour emergency service from Monday (6 April), with strict social distancing guidelines in place.
The hospital is preparing to become a central hub to deal with emergency cases if practices in the area are forced to shut due to coronavirus.
It comes two months after two vets and three veterinary nurses, along with 16 in-patients, had to be evacuated after the hospital was left under 5ft of flood water when the River Taff burst its banks shortly after 3am on Sunday 16 February.
The hospital’s out-of-hours team quickly moved all in-patients upstairs as the river started rising to unprecedented levels.
No one was hurt, and all pets and team members were safely evacuated by members of the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service.
Valley Veterinary Hospital opened only nine months ago after an empty warehouse was transformed into a £2 million pet hospital – the most high-tech facility of its kind in Wales.
Equipment valued at several hundred thousands of pounds – including a CT scanner, digital x-ray machines, ultrasounds, oxygen generator, lab equipment, dental machines and endoscopes – were all destroyed in the carnage, caused by a month’s worth of rain falling in less than 48 hours.
A new £150,000 CT scanner will be installed in June to replace the one that was destroyed. Work is continuing on the ground floor, and it is hoped the entire hospital will be fully functional in September.
Valley Vets is part of UK veterinary group VetPartners, which provided investment for the new hospital.
