Veterinary group invests as it plans to double size of its hospital
KINGSTON Veterinary Group is making a £750,000 investment after gaining planning permission to double the size of its veterinary hospital in Hull.
The group announced its plans for the £300,000 extension in October, and with planning permission now granted it has revealed that it is making a total investment of £750,000, including £125,000 to buy what is claims is the first CT scanner to be owned by any vets practice in Hull and the East Riding.
Work is expected to start on the 4,000 sq ft, three-storey extension to Kingston Vets’ Park Street hospital in the coming months and will be completed by the end of the year. It will provide three operating theatres – including one dedicated to keyhole surgery – a sterile preparation area, additional consulting rooms, a dental theatre, dog and cat wards, ultrasound and endoscopy rooms, and hydrotherapy facilities.
Kingston Vets director Paul Atkinson said that a further key element of the company’s expansion is the recent appointment of a vet who has additional qualifications in surgery and has been recruited from one of the UK’s top veterinary practices.
Rob Williams, who has joined Kingston from the Croft Veterinary Hospital in Northumberland, is the only vet working in Hull and East Yorkshire to hold a surgical certificate, according to the firm.
“Working closely with our existing surgical team, Rob will be able to use all the new facilities of our expanded veterinary hospital to carry out a wide range of keyhole and spinal surgery procedures. We are committed to offering our customers the best possible facilities and to this end our future plans also include purchasing an MRI scanner,” said Atkinson.
In the past five years the workload at Park Street has increased by 80% and the business is now operating on about 400 pets every month. The group’s five branches are seeing a total of 32,000 pets every month.
As well as Park Street, Kingston Vets also has surgeries at Holderness Road, Beverley Road, Cottingham and Anlaby. The group currently employs 70 staff and has 50,000 registered clients, with an average of 500 new customers registering each month.
