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Information for Clients

Dear Client

Welcome to Wendover Heights Equine. Thank you for choosing our Practice for the veterinary care of your horses. We are a first opinion Practice providing ambulatory and clinic based Veterinary care to horses, ponies and donkeys.

How to contact us

Equine Line: 01296 621 840
Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Email: equine@whvc.co.uk
For non urgent queries and contact
Fax: 01296 622112
Facebook: www.facebook.com/whvcequine - Please ‘like’ our page to keep up to date with all the Practice news
Website: www.whvc.co.uk
Lots of useful information about our practice, services, team and horse care and management

Our Business Hours

Our Phones lines are open from 8.30am until 6.30pm Monday to Friday and 8.30am until 12.30pm on Saturdays. At all other times an emergency number is available by dialling the Equine Line number. The reception at Halton is open from 8.30am – 6.30pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 8.30am until 8pm on Tuesday and Thursday and 8.30am until 12.30pm on a Saturday.

Our Services

Wendover Heights Equine provides ambulatory and clinic based veterinary care for our registered clients and your horses, ponies and donkeys. We offer all preventative healthcare services including power float dentistry, routine procedures plus detailed lameness, poor performance and medical investigations, radiography, ultrasonography, gastroscopy, endoscopy, shockwave therapy, standing sedation and non emergency surgery under general anaesthetic, castrations, vetting for purchase examinations, export certification, emergency and inpatient services. We are also pleased to offer Reduced Fee Zoned Visits. To find out which day applies to your yard, please visit this page or call and speak to one of our equine Co-Ordinators.

Our Facilities

The practice has a fully equipped Equine Unit for clinic based treatment. We have stables, a treatment room with stocks, a trot up and lunging area and two paddocks. We also have a knock down box and theatre for planned procedures under general anaesthetic. If you would like to see our facilities please see the ‘virtual tour’ on our website.

Emergency Out of Hours Care

Wendover Heights Equine always has an Equine Vet on duty day and night, every day of the year. To contact the On Call Vet after 6.30pm and before 8.30am on weekdays, after 12.30pm on Saturdays and all day on a Sunday please call our Equine Line on 01296 621840.  Please listen to the message and follow the instructions and you will be diverted to our on call team who will help you .

Emergency Referral

Wendover Heights Equine is a first opinion practice therefore any horse requiring emergency hospitalisation or surgery will be offered referral immediately by the Vet in attendance. It is usual for our Vets to refer emergency cases to The Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire or Donnington Grove, Newbury, although this will always be discussed and agreed with the client prior to referral being made.

Inpatient Care

Wendover Heights Equine has the facilities to stable up to five horses in the clinic. Qualified and experienced equine nurses are responsible for the husbandry and nursing care of these horses and the case Vet is responsible for the Veterinary treatment, this includes hand over to an appropriate colleague where necessary. There are nurses on site from 7am until 7pm and additional checks are made during the night as required by the individual case. All horses are checked by a nurse at 10pm. Any horse found to need additional care or treatment during the night will be seen by the On Call Vet and the owner will be contacted as soon as possible.

Non Emergency Referral

Cases requiring referral will be discussed with the owner. There are two excellent referral hospitals within an hour of the practice and many others further afield. The decision on where to refer a case to is often dependant on the clinician most suitable for the condition requiring treatment. All our Vets work very closely with a wide range of equine specialists and surgeons. It may be appropriate for the specialist or surgeon to see your horse at our clinic.

Second Opinions

Wendover Heights Equine is happy to offer second opinions to unregistered clients. It is professional courtesy that the original Vet is contacted and informed of the second opinion and that all relevant clinical history and any imaging is made available to us. In the case of our client requesting a second opinion from another practice we will fully comply with providing clinical history and images. Often it is in the best interests of the horse that the Vets from both practices converse verbally about the case.

GDPR and your Personal Data

Wendover Heights Equine abides at all times by the GDPR legislation of 25th May 2018. For more information about how we store and process your data please see our Privacy Policy.

Access to and ownership of clinical and financial records

Registered clients of Wendover Heights Equine are entitled to request access to clinical and financial records, including imagery held for horses registered in that clients name. For avoidance of doubt Wendover Heights Equine would prefer these requests via email. Permission from a registered client for disclosure of clinical records to a third party is always requested in writing to the Equine Coordinator. Please allow twenty four hours for requests to be completed, unless it is an emergency. In the case of a referral the treating Vet will share the clinical history with the referral Veterinary Practice, specific permission to share history in this circumstance will not usually be requested from the client.

Fees and charging structure

Wendover Heights Equine is committed to fair and reasonable charges for all clinical work undertaken. Clients can request specific fee information in advance of a booking or visit. Written estimates are provided upon request. It is always the aim of the Vet to ensure that the client is kept up to date with fees for ongoing cases. In emergency cases Vets will discuss probable fees for treatment although by the very nature of emergency treatment this may be difficult to accurately estimate.

Equine Insurance Claims

If your horse is insured and you would like to make a claim for Vets fees please complete a claim form as soon as possible and forward it to us to complete the Vet section. This should be done on receipt of your first invoice for work relating to the claim if not before. All clients making an insurance claim will receive a Client Insurance Claims Information Letter which explains the process. We charge a small administration fee for completing insurance forms unless the client has paid in full at the time of completion.

We strongly recommend that you insure your horse.

Invoices and payments

Invoices are generated twice a month and sent via email or post; payment is expected on receipt of invoice. For insured cases specific agreement must be obtained from the Equine Coordinator or the Accounts Department for a direct claim. Please see our Client Insurance Claims Information letter for more details.

If you are struggling to pay your invoice please contact us immediately. We may be able offer a payment plan over a maximum period of three months.

Non payment of invoices

If invoices are not paid and the client has not contacted us to agree a payment plan then debt recovery action will be taken. Wendover Heights Equine always aims to take particular circumstances into account, such as large, unexpected emergency treatment invoices. We can only do this however if the client makes instalment payments as agreed and keeps in touch. Client exclusion is a last resort but to be fair to all our clients the practice cannot support long outstanding client debts.

The Practice may inform you that non emergency work will not be done until the outstanding balance is cleared. The practice may ask you for payment on the day for future planned visits.

We will always attend a horse in a genuine emergency regardless of the client's account status.

If you would like any further information about the Practice or our services please do get in touch. We will look forward to meeting you and your horses.