Coronavirus update 8th January 2021








Important notice for clients
As most of you know, we have provided our own out of hours emergency service for many years. It’s a service that we have always valued and we know it’s a service that you love and cherish too. It does, however, take a heavy toll on our team and in recent years we have struggled to recruit and retain vets who are prepared to do out of hours work on top of the day job – understandably.
We must value human health as well as animal health and that means looking after our team. Iain simply cannot continue to be on call every night and every weekend as well as at work every day, it’s unsustainable. We will therefore be asking Vets Now to cover our out of hours emergency work from the start of 2021. This will include weeknights as well as weekends. They are a dedicated out of hours provider and have a team that are fresh for the night shift and not also working during the day.
We would like to thank you all for your continued understanding and hope that you will continue to support us in years to come. We remain one of very few independent family practices and feel we know you all so well. Please be assured that we are committed to providing the best service possible to you and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Iain & Jo
Client update 
🐾 Update 23rd September 🐾
We really miss having a blether with our lovely clients at the reception desk and long for the day when we can see everyone without the current worry and stress 😀
However, given the recent rise in covid infections and the latest government announcements about further restrictions we do not feel that this is this time to re-open our doors. We’ll be continuing as we are for the foreseeable future and this is likely to be for several months yet.
Please be assured that we are doing our utmost to maintain the best possible service that we can to our clients and their pets at the moment. You can help us out by making sure that you keep a 2m distance from our team outside the practice, letting us know if you can’t make your appointment time and giving us plenty of notice for repeat prescriptions (at least 2 working days). Our phones have been very busy and our vets have been working extremely hard; please be patient with our team who have been under a lot of pressure recently. Everything takes twice as long at the moment and we are very stretched.
Please also plan ahead. As we get into the colder months make sure that you are as comfortable as possible if waiting outside the practice while we see your pet. We know it’s not ideal when it’s rainy and cold but we need to try and keep everyone safe. We are lucky to have plentiful free car parking on our doorstep so please use this if you can.
Thank you so much to all of you for your understanding and to each and every person who has thanked us, left us a kind review or sent in a lovely card. We really appreciate it ☺️
Thanks for your ongoing patience as we try to catch up with boosters and other non-urgent appointments. Please be aware that there may be a wait for routine appointments at the moment and we are still triaging all other appointments so that we can prioritise pets who need to see us most urgently. Further info from the BVA below:
https://www.bva.co.uk/coronavirus/coronavirus-advice-for-animal-owners/
Update 3rd August 2020

Update 4th June 2020
Here at Crossriggs we’re in the process of moving from providing essential veterinary care only towards providing a more normal range of veterinary services. Reducing the transmission of coronavirus is still the overriding priority and for this reason we will continue to minimise client contact by working from behind closed doors and maintaining a safe distance outside the practice building. We continue to follow the latest guidance from the RCVS and BVA and really appreciate your support and understanding during these unusual times! Please don’t hesitate to contact the practice if you are concerned about your pet’s health and we will do our best to help.
🐾 Cases will still be prioritised in order of clinical need
🐾 Phone triage and phone consultations will continue
🐾 Reduced office hours continue (8:30am – 5:30pm Monday – Friday, closed at weekends)
🐾 Out of hours service remains the same: our vets will answer the phone 24/7
🐾 We’ll be catching up with overdue boosters in order of priority and will contact you when we are able to offer your pet’s booster
🐾 Some neutering will go ahead based on clinical need
🐾 Repeat prescriptions can be collected safely from the practice as well as posted out
Finally, please let us know if anyone in your household is self-isolating due to Covid-19 and your animal needs veterinary care. You may need to arrange for someone else to transport your pet to the practice in order to protect our team.
Guidance from the RCVS
Our governing body has issued advice for clients to help you understand what we can and can’t do for your pets through this difficult time.
https://animalowners.rcvs.org.uk/help-and-advice/
Phone consultations
☎️ Phone consultations ☎️
Please be aware that there will be a charge for phone/video consultations with our vets. Our dedicated team are still here, still working hard and also still need to be paid! Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.
Work Experience
We’re proud to offer work experience placements to young people in our area and have enjoyed working with them all!
Petplan Awards 2020
We’re delighted to have been nominated in the Practice of the Year category! Thank you again to all of our clients for your ongoing support – you’re all fantastic!
Dog Blood Donors
Could you help with this? We’ve already had a great response to our appeal. Please let us know if you feel you could help with this life-saving work.
Virtual Practice Tours
In addition to ‘Meet the team Mondays’, Beth has been working hard on putting together a series of virtual tours on our Facebook page, called ‘Practice Tour Tuesdays’. You can also find these here.
Puppy Clinics
