The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has a voluntary accreditation scheme for veterinary practices called the Practice Standards Scheme. Hollybank chooses to be part of this scheme as we strongly believe in doing the best we can for the patients under our care. The scheme has several levels of accreditation, the highest of which is a Veterinary Hospital.

Being a hospital means that we comply with certain levels of care and provision. This is particularly relevant for you, our clients, in several areas:

We have nursing care on site 24/7 and a vet is always available to attend to our inpatients. This means that if your pet is staying in the hospital there is always someone around who is checking on them and monitoring their progress and care, allowing us to respond to any concerns as quickly as possible.

We have a range of specialist equipment on site, such as an ECG, an ultrasound machine and an endoscope. This allows us to do more involved diagnostics or procedures on site, therefore helping us to deal with more complex cases. We also have an onsite laboratory, allowing us to get vital information quickly if necessary.

We have to pass rigorous assessments. These include many areas, from monitoring patient and procedure outcomes, as well as hygiene and sterility. This gives you peace of mind about out standards of care.

We provide estimates of costs for procedures and inpatient care. We discuss options and the costs involved for your pets care, so that we can help you make the best decisions for them.

All staff are appropriately trained for their jobs and we are committed to ongoing professional development. We want to be able to provide you with the most up to date information and options by ensuring that we are constantly developing our knowledge and skills.

If you want to know more about the Practice Standards Scheme, and what it involves and influences, please see the RCVS website, www.rcvs.org.uk,  visit the ‘Hospital status’ section of our website or just ask a member of staff.