Patient Care (Inpatient / Overnight)

OVERNIGHT CARE OF INPATIENTS IN WARWICKSHIRE

Your veterinary surgeon may recommend that your pet stays overnight or over the weekend at Severn Veterinary Centre (for instance in cases of emergency, to continue medical care or simply if a pet requires treatment that can’t be completed during the normal working day). We hospitalise animals in the kennels or cattery at our Stratford branch.

If considered fit to travel your veterinary surgeon may ask you to transport your pet to the practice – if the location is unfamiliar to you the receptionists at each branch will be only too happy to provide advice and directions.

Whilst vets do not live on site, members of nursing staff are on site and are available to look after your pet. It is important that you understand the level of care your pet will receive in order that you can make informed choices with regard to alternative care plans and to understand the consent for hospitalisation you will be asked to provide.

HOSPITALISED PATIENTS

Patients are checked at 10pm each evening by a member of the night time nursing staff who administer treatment under the direction of a veterinary surgeon. A vet is available overnight should a query arise or if for any reason the night staff require support.

Some animals may require hospitalisation which involves the full time care of a veterinary surgeon. If this is the case we will facilitate the transfer of your pet to the care of the nearest branch of Vets-Now Veterinary Emergency Service who provide dedicated out of hours care for sick or injured animals.

OVERNIGHT CHARGES

If your pet requires hospitalisation please remember this will incur additional fees, especially if frequent night time checks or treatment are required. Your vet will provide you with an estimate of hospitalisation charges and keep you updated as often as practically possible if additional or unforeseen costs are incurred.

OVERNIGHT CARE OF PATIENTS IN WORCESTERSHIRE

Severn Veterinary Centre work alongside dedicated accident and emergency vets – Vets-Now – who work out of hours during nights, weekends and bank holidays. They are the UK’s leading Emergency Out of Hours provider with more than 50 practices all over the UK. Because they are so experienced and knowledgeable in emergency medicine, we trust them to look after your pet when we can’t be there.

In Worcester Vets-Now work out of our Berkeley House Surgery through the night from 7pm until 8am during the week and from 12:30pm on Saturday right through to 8am on Monday morning. During these times, Vets-Now will be taking good care of the pets staying with them, monitoring them regularly, as appropriate to their condition. They are able to provide immediate assistance should a pet’s condition deteriorate becoming unstable or critical, giving both us and you peace of mind.

If your pet has been admitted to Severn Veterinary Centre during the day and requires ongoing overnight hospitalisation as a stable patient, then they will be medically assessed by Vets-Now staff at least every four hours to ensure that they are on track with getting better. At the evening rounds when patients are handed over from Severn Veterinary Centre to Vets-Now, a treatment plan is agreed for stable patients and is usually the plan set out by Severn Veterinary Centre. This plan will be followed unless there is a reason for concern e.g. your pet’s condition deteriorates. In this case the Vets-Now duty staff will contact you in order to discuss decisions about changes to the treatment plan.

Pets that are considered unstable have conditions which are more likely to change and require checking more frequently. In these cases ongoing treatment is not easy to predict and decisions about changing their treatment plan are anticipated.
Unstable patients are also those with heavier nursing requirements such as paraplegic patients of profuse diarrhoea cases requiring frequent bedding changes.

OVERNIGHT CHARGES

If your pet is transferred to Vets-Now as a stable patient and the pre-determined plan is able to be followed there will be no additional charge from Vets-Now as the costs are covered by Severn Veterinary Centre hospitalisation fees.
If we recommend that your pet is transferred to Vets-Now as an unstable or critical patient Vets-Now will give you a detailed cost at the earliest opportunity once they have come on duty and taken over the care of your pet.