15 Mar 2023

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New Practice Opening in Linlithgow!

What a start to 2023 for Westport Vets!

On Tuesday 21st February we opened our brand new super practice in Linlithgow, moving from the practice on Preston Road to our new, much larger unit in Mill Road Industrial Estate! Our brand new premises has been coverted into a state-of-the-art veterinary surgery - and (possibly what clients are most excited about), we have on site parking! At long last!

We have upgraded from two consult rooms at Preston Road, to seven over here at Mill Road - five downstairs and two more upstairs which is where our Cat Ward is going to be. A whole ward for cats! I'm sure everyone will be happy to hear that!

We're also going from the one theatre at our old practice to three operating theatres and a specialist dental suite. One for routine surgeries, another has been specifically built for orthopaedic surgeries and another that is only for cats. Alongside all of these shiny new rooms, we're also housing a built in pharmacy, an on site laboratory, diagnostic suite and a dental suite, with digital x-ray facilities. And, of course, a much larger reception area with more room for all the puppies to run around, explore, and get some biscuits from our reception team - who doesn't love biscuits?!

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Westport Veterinary Clinic Director and Senior Vet Stuart McMorrow says:
 
“We’ve been in our small practice for such a long time and been bursting at the seams as we’ve been getting busier and busier, bigger and bigger. We want to maintain our standards and we felt that if we stayed in the same place we weren't going to be able to maintain that. We want to be able to treat the pets better, also give a much better working environment for the staff who have put up with the smaller building for a long time and so we now have a cutting-edge one”
 
“Its been a very tough weekend of moving, all the team have been helping out. So its quite emotional and sad leaving the old Linlithgow practice at Preston Road, theres been a lot of hard work done there and a lot of good fun times had so does feel quite emotional to leave.”
 
“It was actually 21 February 2022 the first day I viewed the Mill Road building and we’ve moved in on 21st February 2023, so the move has been a full year to to day (just by chance!) in the making. Now that we are here it feels brilliant! Since getting the keys back in July 2022 the last seven months been hard work and in a lot of ways, its been scary with lots of costs and learning lots of new stuff but to be here now its brilliant and just feels amazing.”

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Our first paws through the door were the lovely Winnie and Hugo - who are very excited to have more room to move around in. They have been coming to Westport for years, it seemed only right for the two of them to come in and say hi to everyone and have a good sniff and explore at the new premises. They specifically enjoyed our big, new walk in kennels. All the excitement must have gotten to them, because they both took a wander in and went for a cuddel and a nap. 

The team here at Westport are dedicated to providing the best care for pets and the new practice has been designed to keep stress to a minimum and happy times to the maximum. Some of the consult rooms have been designed for access outside for those patients who maybe don't have the confidence to come and wait inside just yet and just need that little more bit space, as well as to support owners during difficult moments where private access in and out of the building would be preferred.

There is also the room in the new practice for some dedicated space towards hosting in house CPD's for staff so that we can all further our learning - it's something we all love to do and something that's supported by Stuart and the management team to continue on as we're working. 

Stuart has gone on to say:

“The move has also created lots of new jobs, so far we have hired three new vets, an additional receptionist and doubled the cleaning staff hours to manage the changes and are looking to hire a vet care assistant. We will be looking for more nurses and vet care assistants and increasing our team of vets in future.”

“We will have an official open day, we don't have an exact date for this yet but this will probably be in March or April, and we are hoping to also get the Dogs Trust heavily involved in this with this event as they are the main charity we are working with just now.”
“We are looking forward to welcoming all of our old and current clients to a much nicer practice, to welcome them and thank them for all of their patience whilst we were working at the old smaller practice, and we are looking forward to welcoming lots of new clients! We are always welcoming new clients - our books are always open, we have plenty of space, plenty of capacity and staff. We are one of the few veterinary practices that I know who is fully staffed for vets and nurses. We are wanting more but only because we are expanding. We just cant wait to get started and meet lots of new pets!”

Biscuits at reception for everyone!

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