End of Year Round-Up

Over the course of this year, we have expanded our team quite a lot and said hello to many new faces. We have 3 new vets: Andrew, who works in South Queensferry, and Hannah and Cari, who split their time between the practices. We also have 3 new nurses join the team: Lucy, primarily in South Queensferry and Drumbrae, and Jamie and Aislinn who work in Linlithgow. We also have two wonderful Patient Care Assistants, Lynsey and Amy, and our amazing insurance advisor, Wendy. Later on this year, we also welcomed two new Linlithgow receptionists, David and Nicole. We also have our IT and repair man, Ashley, join us as well!

January

One of the hardest parts of looking back on our year… was thinking all the way back to January - because my memory is not that good! RVNs Paula and Gillian took part in the Careers fair at Linlithgow academy. Gillian is a STEM Ambassador and Veterinary Nursing Futures Ambassador, so she is all about promoting careers in the science and veterinary fields. Other than that, I feel like January was mostly used for preparing for the big move to our new Linlithgow practice - getting both stock and ourselves ready.

February

Probably the biggest highlight of the year for us came in February, where the Linlithgow branch finally moved out of our little practice to our brand new custom built building at Mill Road Industrial Estate. The new building consists of 5 consultation rooms downstairs, a fully stocked pharmacy, reception, laboratory, 2 operating theatres, an x-ray suite, a dental theatre, isolation ward and dog kennels. And that’s only downstairs! Upstairs we have the offices, staff rooms and kitchen, as well as what we were opening up later in the year as the Cat Clinic (but more on that bit later). It was a massive step forward for the team and also a really big learning curve because of how much space there was, but it was totally worth it and has made fitting clients in so much easier and being able to accommodate them has been such a pleasure. The feedback on the building as a whole has been overwhelmingly positive!

Vet Rachel, who primarily works out of Drumbrae and South Queensferry also received her Certificate in Western Veterinary Acupuncture and Pain Management in February, which is a massive achievement. 

March

March was another slightly strange month where it felt like a lot happened, but I think everyone was just getting used to the new practice more than anything and finding our feet!

April

In April we celebrated Receptionist Awareness Week by talking about our absolutely amazing team. We have Linlithgow receptionists Hannah, Jessica, David, Julie and Nicole, South Queensferry receptionists Audrey and Gail, and Drumbrae receptionist Wendy - all of whom we couldn’t function without! 

May

Following that, we had Vet Nursing awareness month in May where all the nurses took part in sharing a photo, a little about themselves and what they do in the job. We have an absolutely fantastic team of nurses that without them, we couldn’t function as a practice - they really are the super strong glue! Over in Dalmeny, we also took part in our first charity stall at the Dalmeny Church Pet Fete, where we were raising money for Dogs Trust. Practice Manager and RVN Fiona, RVN Chloe and receptionist Hannah were there saying hi to all the furry friends before they went into the church and had a ceremony for the blessing of our animals. It was a wonderful afternoon and everyone had an absolutely wonderful time. We also had a stall in Linlithgow working together with Walk for Jock and fundraising for them. It was a fantastic month!

June

We couldn’t have a receptionist and vet nurse awareness month without having a vet one, so next up in June was us celebrating our wonderful team of vets with a “Meet The Vet”, where they got to share a bit about themselves and what makes them tick for being in veterinary medicine. Practice owner and Head Vet, Stuart, also cycled alongside Rob Walker who was raising money for The Brain Tumour Charity. 

July

And then suddenly we’re more than half way through the year and we’ve reached July! I think the highlight of this month was hosting our first ever VIP Night in the Linlithgow branch where we celebrated an evening of kindness. This was an invitation only event where we had in attendance Westport Vets Local Heroes award winners, Hugo’s Heroes award winners and nominees, Westport’s Gift of Kindness campaign winners and nominees and a selection of guests from local Linlithgow schools, local Linlithgow businesses, charities, organisations and individuals that we have been working closely with. In total, there were 65 guests and 6 dogs so it was a busy, but wonderful evening. It was a wonderful night to highlight all the amazing people in our community, and RVN Carena did a fantastic job organising the event and making sure that everyone had a wonderful time. 

Westport Vets also become a Disability Confident Employer - Level 1. Fiona was invited to a Government run event to become a part of the Disability Confident Employer Initiative. Being a Disability Confident Employer means we are committed to supporting our team with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need in the workplace, if they have a disability or medical condition. We also had Vet Graham, who walked the West Highland Way in support of Asthma and Lung UK. They raised an absolutely incredible £1545 for the charity - and there were only minimal blisters to be had by them! Linlithgow receptionist Hannah also completed two courses this month that she had been working hard on - the Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Mental Health, First Aid and Mental Health Advocacy in the Workplace and the Silver BVRA Award.

August

August was another busy month as we were awarded a Dog Friendly Clinic. The scheme is an initiative run by Dogs Trust and the British Veterinary Behaviour Association (BVBA), which is there to ensure the most comfortable veterinary care experience possible for dogs and their owners. We also hosted our first ever open Day at Linlithgow where we got to show all our clients round the whole practice so that they could see everything. We had charity stalls from Cat Action trust and Stray Cat Rescue, a Teddy Bear hospital - where you could bring down your cuddly friends and get them all patched up - and a soak the surgeon. Our lovely vet, Stuart, was more than happy to step up for this one. We had an absolutely wonderful day and managed to raise £314 for the charities. We had even more reason to celebrate this month as Student Vet Nurse Connor, graduated and became a fully qualified RVN! Our insurance advisor Wendy also completed her Diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour Therapy (DipCABT)!

September

In September, Linlithgow achieved a silver ISFM award as a cat friendly clinic, awarded to us by the International Society of Feline Medicine Cat Friendly Clinic Award - and this has also been maintained by our other two branches in South Queensferry and Drumbrae. We also had some community fun in South Queensferry where some of the team got together and created the Westport Rowing team. The team consists of Vet Mair, RVNs Lucy and Chloe, and receptionist Gail. RVN Lauren took part in doing the Kiltwalk in Kelvingrove, Glasgow. She was raising money and awareness for Endometriosis UK charity. In total, she walked 14.7 miles and raised a wonderful £245 for the charity. Linlithgow receptionists Hannah and Julie, and Practice Manager Fiona also went to the annual British Veterinary Receptionist Association (BVRA) Congress where they had a weekend of learning. Westport also started working with and launched PetsApp for our clients - think of WhatsApp, but for your pets. It’s a new and innovative way to chat to clients and keep up to date along with fast replies and looks to be a fantastic way of enhancing our clients experience with us.

October

In October, it seemed to be a slightly quieter month on the run up to Halloween, Fireworks night and Christmas where we just seemed to want to make sure that all our furry companions were safe and weren’t getting too stressed for the holiday season. RVNs Gillian and Fiona did take part in the Bo’ness careers fayre in which they showcased all there is to know about working in a vet practice.

November

November saw us taking part in Antibiotic Amnesty where clients could bring back their pets medication that was no longer in use and we would safely dispose of it for them. We also were finally able to open up the Cat Clinic in Linlithgow and have our first clients in there. The Cat Clinic is located upstairs in the Linlithgow branch and you’ll find two consult rooms, prep room, operating theatre, and the cat ward which consists of 16 state of the art kennels. Linlithgow Vet Yasmin along with one of her friends Sam, got together with each other and their guinea pigs and made a wonderful calendar for UK based Guinea Pig Rescue: Primrose Piggies. South Queensferry Nurse, Steph, also completed her Certificate in Advanced Nursing which she has been working exceptionally hard on for the past year - an absolutely incredible achievement and all of us at Team Westport are super proud of her! Linlithgow receptionists Julie and Jessica completed their Silver BVRA award. We also became the first Veterinary Practice in the UK to become an Endometriosis Friendly Employer. It’s something very close to several members of our team and we’re more than delighted to be working with them and the charity in supporting people with endometriosis.

December

And just like that, we’re in festive December. We did a Christmas Design competition for a snowglobe where the winning design got made into one for the client - and we had a wonderful dalmatian winner decorating our reception desks throughout the month. We also had the EPIC Awards in Linlithgow, which is an award to celebrate acts of kindness in our Linlithgow Community. This year we had two EPIC Award winners - Rikke Hogg from Linlithgow Bridge Primary School and Nicola McCluckie from Linlithgow Primary School. Linlithgow receptionist Hannah also completed her gold level BVRA award - an amazing achievement!

We also launched our new Friends of Westport Health Care Plan - aiming to give even better treatment to all our clients on it with even more benefits than before. It’s been a scary jump for all of us on the FOWP admin team and there’s been lots of work behind the scenes, but we cannot wait for what comes from this and the next steps. We also started working alongside VidiVet, which is a 24/7 service for our clients to be in contact with one of the vets so that they can give advice whenever they need it. We also had some festive fun with our December Advent calendar, which is where we randomly select clients from across our three branches to win a prize a day - and there were many happy faces and waggy tails when they opened their presents!

What else?

Throughout the year as a team we have both gone to and hosted various CPD events in the hopes of expanding our own knowledge and spending more time with our colleagues in getting to know each other. We started hosting events in the new Linlithgow branch, taking full advantage of the amount of space that we now have, and we’ve been able to open it up to other vets and nurses in the community alongside our own staff members. These have been received with great success and we’re hoping to continue these in 2024 with even more discussions around brand new topics.

Phew - did I cover everything? Probably not, and I’m sure there are some bits that I missed out on - but it’s been one heck of a year! Roll on 2024!