Somerset Road
Douglas
IM2 5AQ
Office/Farm Calls:674532Castletown:823710Peel:844656
Appointments:674076Fax:829551
Practice Newsletter April 2017
I had fallen out of the habit of writing regular newsletters for a variety of reasons not the least of which was pressure on time. However with a full complement of staff for the last few months the workload has balanced out. Also there have been lots of important changes to the practice recently that I would like to keep you updated on.
It is almost 10 months since Milan Veterinary Ltd was sold to Independent Vetcare Ltd (IVC). Outwardly there have been little changes to how the practice runs and hopefully the service to you. Internally Amanda Shimmin does have a heavier workload as practice manager. Hence she has moved into the “back” office more and Colleen Miller along with Becky Moore is now dealing with your calls and enquiries. Please use the 674532 number for all your horse calls and orders and 674076 / 823710 / 844656 to make any small animal appointments. At certain times of the day the branch clinic phones are automatically diverted to the Douglas clinic. Therefore even if you have dialled the Peel or Castletown number you will be speaking to reception staff in Douglas. Hence it is really important that both you and the receptionist make it very clear in which clinic the appointment has been made. We have had a number of incidences recently where a client has turned up at a clinic other than the one where the appointment was intended. We will always see those clients but it can be less than satisfactory particularly if it is not the treating vet who sees that patient. Continuity of care is very challenging as the vets cannot be on duty all of the time. However it is important that we schedule appointments with the most appropriate vet for that job to provide the best continuity possible.
IVC is committed to supporting all aspects of the practice and any concerns that you may have had that major changes would be instigated particularly on the agricultural side of the practice, could not be further from the truth. IVC has a policy of letting the individual practices carry on in the same fashion as before and this is very much the case with Milan. In fact with the resources behind IVC, I foresee a better and more stable future for the practice. We envisage improvements both in personel and equipment in the near future, which will allow us to not only continue with the excellent service that we provide but also expand upon it. Lukasz Kuberka has recently visited a referral orthopaedic practice that is owned by IVC in order to further his knowledge and surgical experience. At the start of April we had an eminent human and veterinary dentist spend the weekend in the practice giving us valuable continued professional education. We have an extensive programme of continued professional development (CPD) planned for all the vets here at Milan. Together with investment in new equipment these new skills will benefit us all as we try to meet the ever increasing demands of modern veterinary medicine. However, it is our staff members who are the most valuable assets and we are not only very keen to keep these key employees, but we have taken on some new people with more appointments in the pipeline.
Staff News:
We have had lots of changes to the team since last summer, some of them planned and others that were not forseen. Catherine Vick who had been with us for just a year decided to join her fiancee in Canada and she departed at the end of October. Louisa Kermeen, who had not been well since the end of the summer, decided to hand in her notice at the same time. Thus we had two positions available and I am delighted to welcome Caitlin Sterley and Wade Shrives to the practice. Both Wade and Caitlin are from South Africa which brings our total from this country to three with Matie. With Lukasz Kuberka hailing from Poland and Michelle Croom from the USA it illustrates the cosmopolitan nature of our veterinary practice. Caitlin is doing more of the small animal clinics at the moment and Wade is joining Matie to help out on the large animal side of the practice. We hope that Caitlin and Wade enjoy the island and the practice equally well.
Kate Gledhill is back at work after her break and is doing clinics at Douglas on a Monday and a Friday evening and at Castletown on Tuesdays and Friday mornings and afternoons. She joins Lukasz, Katie Druggan and Alice Forster in carrying the work load in the clinics.
Michelle is due to return to her native USA this month and whilst I am looking for a permanent replacement we will have a locum Sue Harvey joining us again. Sue has done a couple of stints with us in the practice and despite her globe trotting we can still entice her back to our lovely island. Sue will spend the summer with us.
We have two new mums now. Rachael Quayle has returned from maternity leave, after having a little girl called Maddison. Charlotte Morgan-Jones is currently on maternity leave after having a little girl called Darcy.
Charlotte Coole has recently left us. She has gone to pastures new at DEFA. We have had two new receptionists join our team at Douglas. Ruth Newbery-Reeder has been with us for a couple of weeks and Paula Nicholson has just joined us this week. We wish them well learning their new roles.
Calls and regular appointments:
I would like to repeat an appeal that I have made in other years about getting the calls in to us as early as possible. For non-urgent horse call-outs we would ask you to ring 674532 before 9.30 am for morning visits and before 2.30 pm for the afternoons. As we have three evening surgeries to do between 5 and 6 pm all the vets will be routinely tied up in clinics for that hour. This makes those late afternoon / early evening call-outs difficult to cover. Calls put in after 4pm will have to be made after evening surgery and will be regarded as being out of hours. Therefore, if you suspect that you will need a visit then check the animal early and get the call into us as promptly as possible.
Regular appointments can be made as normal by calling 674076 for small animals and 674532 for equine.
Mobile Phones:
If you are putting in an out of hours call, then use the 674076 or 674532 number. This number is personally answered during the day and after hours it gives you the mobile number of the vet on call. Please do not use the last number you got when you rang out of hours as that vet may not be on duty and the voice-mail message left will not be picked up. We have had cases of the last vet on duty who has gone off on holidays returning to the island to find some messages left on the mobile phone voice-mail. Unfortunately occasionally these messages have been urgent but as they have not been picked up the calls were not done. I do not guarantee that all messages left on the non-duty vet’s phones are responded to. However, if you always use 674532 then your call-out request will always be dealt with as soon as is possible.