Member profile
In 2011, two established Wingham veterinary practices merged to form Wingham & Valley Vets: John Dooley had been running Wingham Veterinary Clinic since 1983 and Peter and Louise Rourke founded The Valley Veterinary Hospital in 1994.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"We aim to foster a great culture so that the business is full of happy, dedicated staff and there is a very strong emphasis on continuing education," says director, Alissa Healy.
"Continuing education for all the staff allows us to practice at a high level and offer the best treatments. We offer dentistry, medical and surgical treatment to pets and farm animals of all shapes and sizes at our hospital as well as on-farm.
"For small animals, we have much of the equipment you would find in a human hospital - radiology, ultrasound, blood testing machines and our vets have a special interest in animal behaviour, ultrasound, orthopaedic surgery and canine reproduction.
"We do large animal runs to outlying districts to perform dairy herd health, equine dentals, lameness workups, bull testing and pregnancy testing.
"The practice has a strong emphasis on animal behaviour and we also run puppy preschool and canine training classes.
Together, they are a team of 25 - nine veterinarians, two receptionists, three dog trainers/behaviouralists, one cleaner and ten nurses and between them, there is over 100 years of combined veterinary experience.
The secret to ongoing success is to have passionate, dedicated staff who love their jobs and also a strong commitment to lifelong learning.
- Alissa Healy, director, Wingham and Valley Vets
The practice's strong emphasis on ongoing education means they are always offering the most up-to-date diagnostics and treatments to strive for the best outcomes.
"We work closely with veterinary specialists to ensure our patients receive the same standard of care as a metropolitan practice, despite our regional location,' says Alissa.
"This includes management of cancer patients and administration of chemotherapy at our hospital, so patients don't need to travel far for lifesaving treatment; a visiting specialised orthopaedic surgeon for very complex orthopaedic cases and visiting eye specialists.
"We are also a behaviour practice so our focus is to always handle animals gently to help minimise their stress and anxiety.
"We use a lot of strategies that are not commonplace in other vet clinics, to ensure our patients don't have negative experiences, which could cause lifelong behavioural problems and train all our staff on fear-free ways to handle our patients.
"We set an example by always shopping locally. When we have enquiries about animal health products, services or supplies that we don't provide, we will direct customers to other local businesses.
"For many years, we have provided heavily discounted veterinary services to Riding for the Disabled to help ensure the ongoing viability of such a wonderful charity, and we do the same for the Wingham High School to ensure agriculture can continue as a subject to the students.
They regularly sponsor of all the dairy industry events in the Manning Valley such as the Mid-Coast Dairy Advancement Group and local events such as the Taree Show and Akoostik festival.
In the future, they would love to achieve fear-free accreditation for the practice, expand on their canine reproduction service and also their dairy herd health service.