Veterinary Surgeon

Veterinary Surgeon
Location: Harlow & Epping, Essex
Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week – 4-day compressed or 5-day options available
Practice: Forest Vets
Salary: £66,000–£70,000 per annum DOE

Help shape the hospital you want to work in.

What if your next veterinary role gave you the opportunity to influence not just the cases you manage, but the hospital and team around you?

Forest Vets is entering an important period of development. Alongside our established Epping hospital, our brand-new Harlow hospital creates an opportunity to strengthen our clinical offering, develop our surgical caseload and build a team with a shared vision for the standard of care we want to deliver.

We're looking for an experienced, clinically confident Veterinary Surgeon who wants to take ownership of their cases, contribute ideas and play an active part in shaping what comes next. You'll have access to advanced diagnostics, regular surgical opportunities and experienced certificate holders across the wider Forest Vets team.

This is an opportunity to make a tangible contribution while continuing to develop as a clinician.

Why join Forest Vets?

• Have a real influence. Contribute to the development of Harlow's clinical offering, surgical caseload and ways of working as the hospital establishes itself.
• Keep developing clinically. Benefit from dedicated weekly surgery time, a varied hospital caseload and opportunities to manage cases from investigation through to treatment.
• Work with clinical expertise around you. Collaborate with certificate holders in medicine, surgery, cardiology, dermatology and diagnostic imaging.
• Help build a team with shared standards. Bring your ideas, clinical judgement and experience to a hospital at an important stage in its development.
• Make use of modern facilities. Work across Epping and Harlow, with access to CT, imaging, endoscopy and two theatres at each hospital.
• Develop your hospital experience. Manage emergency presentations and hospitalised patients, with dedicated nursing support on your weekly inpatient shift.
• Choose your working pattern. Work 40 hours over four compressed days or five days.
• No routine OOH. Maintain your clinical focus without routine out-of-hours commitments.

The practice & team

Forest Vets is a busy, clinically progressive practice across Essex, with an established hospital in Epping and a brand-new purpose-built hospital in Harlow. Working across both sites, you'll experience a varied caseload spanning first-opinion work, complex investigations, emergency presentations and surgery.

Epping: a varied hospital caseload

Epping supports its own clients as well as local practices, giving the team exposure to genuine emergencies and more complex cases. These include road traffic accidents, GDVs, haemabdomen, blocked bladders, foreign body ingestions, cystotomies and paralysis.

The team aims to investigate and manage cases in-house wherever clinically appropriate, giving you the opportunity to take ownership of your clinical decisions and follow patients through their treatment.

Harlow: help shape the next chapter

Our new Harlow hospital represents a significant investment in the future of Forest Vets. Facilities include five consultation rooms, two theatres, a dedicated dental area, CT, X-ray, endoscopy, a six-station preparation room, separate dog and cat wards, a cat-only consultation and waiting area, isolation facilities and an in-house laboratory, the facilities are in place to support an ambitious clinical offering. The next steps are about making the most of that potential: developing the caseload, strengthening the clinical team and continuing to build how the hospital works.

You'll be able to contribute your ideas and experience as the team develops its approach to clinical care, surgery and case management. For a vet who enjoys improving how things are done and wants to see the impact of their contribution, there is considerable scope to make a difference.

Clinical development and collaboration

Across Forest Vets, the wider clinical team includes certificate holders in medicine, small animal surgery, cardiology, dermatology and diagnostic imaging, including three medicine certificate holders and two imaging certificate holders.

You'll have opportunities to discuss challenging cases and learn from colleagues with different areas of expertise, while taking responsibility for your own clinical decisions.

You'll receive at least one dedicated surgery day each week. At Epping, this currently averages around six surgical cases per day, while the surgical caseload at Harlow continues to develop. You'll need to be confident with routine soft tissue surgery and comfortable managing emergency presentations.

The role also includes a dedicated inpatient shift each week, typically involving 10–12 hospitalised patients with dedicated nursing support. This gives you the opportunity to follow cases beyond the consultation room and develop your experience in ongoing patient management.

The practice currently refers spinal cases externally and will soon also refer ophthalmology cases as its current ophthalmology certificate holder moves on. There remains a strong appetite to investigate and treat cases in-house wherever clinically appropriate.

The role offers 40 hours per week, with a choice of two working patterns:

• Four-day compressed week: three 11-hour days, 8am–7pm, plus one shorter day, 8am–4.30pm.
• Five-day week: five eight-hour days, with a mixture of 8am–4.30pm and 11am–7pm shifts.

Admin time is built into the working day, with break arrangements varying by working pattern. There is no routine out-of-hours work. The current weekend rota is expected to reduce as the team grows too!

What we're looking for

• RCVS-registered Veterinary Surgeon with ideally around three to five years' UK experience, depending on clinical exposure and confidence.
• Previous hospital experience is essential.
• Confident performing routine soft tissue surgery and managing emergency presentations.
• Able to manage hospitalised patients and make sound clinical decisions in sole charge.
• Strong diagnostic reasoning and clinical judgement, with referral experience advantageous.
• Empathetic and compassionate when supporting clients through difficult or sensitive cases.
• Calm under pressure, collaborative and comfortable discussing challenging cases with colleagues.
• Motivated to develop clinically and contribute ideas to the continued development of Harlow hospital.

Benefits:

• 5 weeks holiday + bank holidays and birthday off (pro-rata for part-time)
• No out-of-hours (OOH)
• RCVS and VDS fees paid
• External CPD funded
• Extensive free online Linnaeus CPD program
• Career progression opportunities
• Staff discount schemes
• Enhanced sickness pay
• Enhanced equal family leave
• Wellness program including:
• Employee assistance program
• Eyecare voucher scheme
• Free annual flu jab
• Cycle to work scheme

Forest Vets is part of Linnaeus and Mars Veterinary Health, the largest family-owned veterinary company in the world. Being privately owned, we can truly be driven by our purpose, to create a better world, and think long-term as opposed to being focused solely on short-term profits.   

At Linnaeus, A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS starts with a better world for our people. Our Associates are over 6000 strong and empowered to speak up, step up and deliver quality services. You’ll have access to a huge network of specialists, worldwide development opportunities and an easily accessible, comprehensive wellbeing package that prioritises your physical and mental health, allowing you to focus on what you do best – care for pets.  

We are committed to fostering a culture that is inclusive and diverse, we care about you and want you to be authentic, with everything you need to perform at your best. We are all individual but two important things bring us together: a commitment to excellence and our passion to achieve our purpose. 

If you would like to apply for the role or for an informal chat to discuss it further, please get in touch with Joanne in the recruitment team joanne.gray@linnaeusgroup.co.uk

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