December Update

December started off with a bit of fun on the 7th with Christmas Jumper Day, where the team were going about in their Christmas jumpers, but we also had clients coming in and having their pets photos taken in their jumpers and costumes - it was just the thing we all needed to get us into the Christmas spirit!

The 9th of December was International Day of Veterinary Medicine and the Westport Team celebrated this by having their Christmas night out. It was a wonderful night with a lot of dancing and a lot of drinking as well!

RVN Steph, who works primarily from South Queensferry and Drumbrae, completed her Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Nursing. For the past year, Steph has been working exceptionally hard on obtaining her Certificate, whilst also working full time in practice. Modules that Steph studied to obtain this Certificate included research and evidence based veterinary nursing, quality improvement in veterinary nursing and developing evidence based practice through reflection. A tremendous amount of work went into this and everyone here at Westport are super proud of this wonderful achievement!

Our Linlithgow receptionist, Hannah, completed her Gold Level Veterinary Client Care Non-Clinical Skills Diploma and is now a Registered Veterinary Receptionist. This was a massive amount of work and we’re all very proud of Hannah for completing this course.

In Linlithgow, we had our EPIC awards in our local community. Following on from the success of our Local Hero Awards, we created the EPIC awards - Exceptional Person In The Community - where we can honor the many great acts of kindness happening within the local schools. We invited all the local schools in Linlithgow to take part in this and this year we had two winners: Rikke Hogg from Linlithgow Bridge Primary School, and Nicola McCluckie from Linlithgow Primary School. Rikke was recognised for making and donating wooly pom pom hats for the children, all handmade in her own time to keep them warm. Nicola was nominated for this award for her continued acts of kindness and support towards the pupils in the school.

We have also started working alongside VidiVet who are televets that work 24/7 to give our clients round the clock care. It works like a messaging system for clients, and all they have to do is start a chat and they will get a personalised video message back from a vet with advice on what to do. It gives our clients a bit of peace of mind that there’s someone there when we’re closed through the night.

Our brand new and improved health care plans also launched in the last couple of weeks which aims to give our clients even more benefits. This includes your preventative treatment such as boosters and parasite treatment, alongside additional vet consults and annual blood sampling. We also have an Extra plan which includes unlimited nurse and vets consults as well as lots of other exciting benefits!

We also launched our new quarterly newsletter so that clients and staff can see all the new things that have been happening and what we’re doing behind the scenes. RVNs Gillian and Lauren have been working hard to put it all together with the help of the team.

Throughout December on the run up to Christmas, we ran an advent calendar for our health care plan clients where they could be in with winning some toys and treats for their Christmas! We had many happy visits from excited pets and clients who came in to get their wee presents - even Fred, the spaniel, came in dressed as Santa Claus to pick it up.

Happy Holidays everyone and we’ll see you next year!