Our history
Even from when studying in vet school, Charlotte was aware that she would one day like to run her own clinic. This was a dim awareness at the studying stage, and continued as she joined her first practice and hoped this might be an ‘ever after’ sort of job. It wasn’t. Having moved through two subsequent practices, deciding which aspects of each were beneficial and which were detrimental to staff, clients and pets, by 2013 and as she started her third practice role, Charlotte was pretty set on starting up her own veterinary service.
Our ambulance was born
Charlotte and her parents started looking into how a mobile unit might work, and contacted Wet Pets Conversions to ask whether they might be able to consist with a van conversion. They had not undertaken anything of this type before, but were extremely positive and a beautiful collaboration sprang forth from this.
The first step was to choose a van. Gosh, how many technical details are required when trying to fit people, animals and equipment into a small space! Charlotte had never been so well versed in the differences in load space, torque, turning circles, traction, van dimensions and weight ratios as at the end of the first two months’ research. Eventually, having test-driven many different vans and received advice from several reputable sources, a Mercedes Sprinter LWB was selected. So far, so good. As the Fates would have it, a suitable model was available and purchased very rapidly. This really did seem like destiny, with the number plate bearing the year of our business inception (’16), and the letters ‘BV’ (used for ‘British Veterinary’ in the industry) and ‘HCA’ (used for ‘Health Care Assistant’ in the NHS)!
Phase two was purchasing equipment, and ensuring this would actually fit into the desired space by coming up with a design for the bespoke-designed clinic. Eickemeyer – a veterinary supply company – were tremendously helpful throughout this process, helping with problems such as how to fix items in place whilst travelling but have them available whilst stationary, and how to prevent vibration damage to equipment whilst on the move.
Charlotte sat at home in true Blue Peter style, and created a 3D cardboard model of the load space of the van, minus the depth of the lining material that would be used. She then used the technical data from each piece of equipment to design 3D cardboard models of everything going into the van, and created a complete cardboard model of what would be required. This was taken to Wet Pets – who were most impressed – and subsequently made into reality. This was not without teething problems: for example, some of the equipment was delivered with instructions for 10cm clearance on all sides when in use. This had not been in the technical specification, so had not been incorporated into the cardboard model. However, with some last-minute tweaks and a few compromises, our mobile unit was finished.
Next was a trip to Lynx Signs for the sign writing. Until this moment, our logo had been a watercolour drawing by Ron Lawrence, but Tony helped bring this into digital life in the beautiful letters and skylark now emblazoned across our ambulance.
What’s in a name?
Now you may be thinking that we’ve missed a lot of steps here – and you would be right! There was an awful lot of research done in the background in that first 12 months, into all aspects of creating a veterinary business. Central to this was what our future name would be.
Charlotte created a market research questionnaire and went out into the local and not-so-local communities. She accosted people all over the place – if they had a pet or were with someone else with a pet, they were requested to answer some questions! These included general expectations of vets, current experiences, and desired things from a veterinary visit. There was also a list of suggested names – all of which had some meaning to Charlotte – and people were asked to rank these in order of preference.
The winner was immediately clear: Skylark Vets. This was a relief to Charlote, because it was the name she really wanted the service to have!
Skylarks have long been the inspiration for music, poetry and other prose. From the Romantic poets to war poets, classical composers and novelists, the humble lark has been immortalised in appealing ways to most of us. Its mellifluous sounds can be heard over the meadows in the early morning, over the dales as they rise and fall in undulating fashion, and fills the hearer with joy and energy. Skylarks have always seemed such plucky birds to Charlotte: they are always out, whatever the weather, and never give up. They sometimes change tack, sometimes circle back to their start, but they always keep going, and always with a beautiful melody. They are reminder of the rolling fields from home (the North Downs), the heralds of spring, and the introducers of each new day, full of promise and opportunity. As such, they have long been a source of inspiration to Charlotte, and are some of her favourite birds.
For all of these reasons, she was delighted that the Skylark was the chosen brand of her veterinary service. It would appear that a rose by any other name does not smell, or in this case, sound as sweet as any other, after all!
Our growth
After all the research and development delays, we finally opened our ambulance doors for business in October 2017. The anticipated slow growth became a reality, but slowly and surely, we gained some wonderful clients that we are still proudly serving today. As our service gained momentum, we started to see more cases with animals that really needed to be hospitalised. Although keeping them at home in kennels was an improvement from nothing at all, we didn’t have the facilities or staff to make this a viable option for patients needing prolonged or involved care.
The hunt for a building
Once again, the hunt for a static premises was on. We searched high and low throughout Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. Charlotte even travelled as far as Wiltshire and Dorset in search of the ideal place!
Eventually, a property in Edenbridge came up – in the height of the COVID pandemic. It had been on the market for some time, and part of it had been a veterinary clinic for many years. Although it didn’t immediately appeal to Charlotte as a building, the location was both peaceful and beautiful. It also made sense from a business perspective, because the property did not require a ‘change of use’ application.
Having submitted an offer for the building, Charlotte viewed its acceptance as a sign from Above that this was the right decision. What followed were several months of inexplicable delays, but finally we got the keys in December 2020.
Getting to work
Unfortunately, the building was not quite in the condition we were expecting. It was extremely dirty, the windows didn’t close, and the rain came trough the front door every day! So we set ourselves a goal of opening at the beginning of January 2021.
The first task was to make the space our own. We had a grand clear-out when we moved in, disposing of lots of paper, magazines, and sharps.
Next, we gave everything a really, really good clean – including the walls, cupboards and storage units!
We donated out-of-date medications and lots of pet food to charities desperate for supplies during the pandemic:
Then we worked on changing the light fittings, moving the cupboards, and scrubbing the ceilings – it really looked like a building site for some time!
Finally, when everything was clean, we started the task of re-decorating. This was a whole-team effort, with everyone donning old clothes and clasping a paintbrush or roller in hand.
After decorating, we moved the rooms around to create more space and improve our flow, giving us our current layout. This also enables us to keep everything ‘clean’ (preparing patients for surgery, and surgery itself) together in one place, and everything ‘dirty’ (dentistry, abscess removal etc.) in another place, improving patient safety and reducing patient stress.
COVID-19 strikes
Unfortunately, the unthinkable happened in the middle of this enormous undertaking, and we all contracted COVID-19. The effect was disastrous. We were all confined to bed for days, Dawn was hospitalised, and we all developed long COVID with the inevitable exhaustion for months afterwards! There was no way that we could now open at the start of January, so the date was pushed back to 14th January 2021.
Rising from the ashes: Skylark Vets@Edenbridge is born
Once out of isolation (and still feeling absolutely awful), the next mammoth task was working out where everything could go. Utter chaos ensued for the two manic days before opening…
Finally, things started to take shape and we could open our doors to the public (metaphorically, of course – COVID ensured that we continued our car park liaisons for a long time)!
We have continued to make small tweaks and major changes to how things are ordered in our clinic, but the overall aim – to provide excellent care for our patients and minimise stress all-round – has remained the same.
Planning for the future
We are not content to stop where we are – we have many plans to improve our clinic and services! Although we have greatly improved the work flow, the current clinic layout makes it very difficult for more than one of us to be consulting at any time. We are planning a complete overhaul of the clinic in the relatively near future. Please see our Skylark Vets News area to find out more about our plans and how you may be able to help!