We bid farewell to Deanna in February after eleven years at Dacre House. Deanna originally joined us as a receptionist and then moved to the nursing team, completing her veterinary receptionist and animal nursing assistant diplomas. Deanna will be much missed by the team – we wish her all the very best in her new career a little closer to home.

Codie and Bethany are our new recruits to the nursing team to fill the gaps! Codie joins us having volunteered at Folly Wildlife and Raystede Animal Rescue centres. She enjoys working with all animals but is particularly fond of guinea pigs, having 5 of her own (along with her 16 year old goldfish!). Bethany joins us having worked previously at NDSR, one of our well respected referral centres. She is thoroughly enjoying the new surgical opportunities that working within a smaller practice brings. In her spare time Bethany enjoys horse riding, having started this for the first time whilst studying equine and animal management at Hadlow College.

Finally, you may have noticed a steady stream of vet students during your visits to us. We are delighted to continue to welcome the up-and-coming generation of vets in the very necessary training of ‘extra mural studies’ placements.

In staff news, we are very pleased that Jane’s arm has now recovered – Jane is such an integral part of the team and was hugely missed during her period of absence. We are also delighted that Hannah has completed her post-graduate in Small Animal Medicine – her studies give her invaluable knowledge for solving more complex medical cases as well as an impressive selection of new letters after her name!
We bid farewell in the new year to Drew, one of our long-standing locum vets, who now moves on to pastures new.
Becky also leaves us temporarily for maternity leave – we wish her all the very best in the months to come and look forward to having her back in due course.

With so many comments on the lovely fresh look of our Pembury clinic, we have embarked on re-decorating Southborough in a more contemporary style – not an easy task to carry out given how busy and how long our opening hours are. We hope you like the new look of our consulting rooms… onto the waiting room next!

In October we also said goodbye to our lovely Scottish vet Abi, who was very sad to go but has needed to relocate due to family circumstances. This has left us in a tight situation to staff the two practices - we are incredibly thankful to our vets who have bent over backwards to fill the gaps and keep us running at mostly full capacity.

Amazingly, during a period of national vet shortage and recruitment problems, Alice arrived! Alice graduated in 2009 from Edinburgh University. Having worked in small animal practices in Cheshire and Northern Ireland, Alice has moved back home to Penshurst with her husband, three young children and 10 year old lurcher, Reg. Alice enjoys all aspects of veterinary but is particularly interested in the benefit of pets to people’s wellbeing - she has just completed a diploma in Psychotherapy. When she has (a small amount!) of spare time Alice loves reading, gardening and eating nice food.

Also new to our team is nurse Lizzy who has moved to Dacre House from Pennard Vets. Lizzy is hoping to undertake her degree in veterinary nursing with us in the future. She particularly enjoys the surgery aspect of her job and is kept busy at home looking after her three
dogs, horse, ferret, snake and fish pond!

We increased our kennel capacity back in June with some clever re-thinking of furniture/space and a little plumbing and carpentry from Bradley to make the new kennels fit! Our new kennels have given us more space to meet increased demand. In staff news, we were delighted that vet Hannah’s wedding was able to ahead in July and that many of us were able to attend the reception. Congratulations Hannah and Russell! At the end of the summer, it was also wonderful to finally hold a staff social for the first time (outside and socially distanced, of course) since Christmas 2019. With our 27 staff working various shifts and in ‘zones’ within the building (as well as across two sites), we have thoroughly appreciated a chance to meet together once more. We welcome Danielle to the nursing team. Danielle joins us as a recently qualified RVN having studied at Canterbury College. Moving to Tunbridge Wells has enabled her to be closer to her family. Within veterinary nursing, Danielle is particularly keen on dental work and in-patient care.