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When you arrive please come to the Equine Referral Hospital reception. The clinician that you have been referred to will be advised that you have arrived and an equine technician will be available to assist with unloading of your horse if required. Your horse will be weighed for the patient records.

It may be necessary to for your horse to remain in hospital for one night or more for procedures to be carried out. We have excellent, new barn accommodation which can accommodate 35 horses in spacious well ventilated stables. We use deep shavings beds and feed only the best quality, low dust meadow hay or haylage. All horses are groomed daily and we stock a wide range of horse feeds to maintain dietary continuity when your horse is hospitalised. When your horse is admitted one of our Equine Technicians will be assigned to your horse and will be responsible for your horse’s care throughout its stay in the hospital.

General Anaesthetic and Horses

Several equine routine elective and emergency procedures require general anaesthesia.

The decision to anaesthetise your horse is not made lightly and we will always discuss this with you. While everything is done to ensure patient safety, every general anaesthetic carries a certain risk and this risk is higher in horses than in cats, dogs and people.

To find out more about what happens when our team administer anaesthetic to your horse, we have created a client fact file about general anaesthesia and your horse  Download 

Once hospitalised, your horse will receive the best possible care and attention from our dedicated clinicians, nurses and equine technicians. Water will be available at all times, and your horse will be fed at regular intervals as required. If appropriate, your horse will be walked at regular intervals throughout the day. At all times your horse’s welfare is our priority. The hospital is staffed 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and so there is never a time when your horse is not being cared for.

If your horse is admitted to the Equine Referral Hospital and stays overnight it will receive the highest possible standards of care from our overnight on-call clinical team, comprising a specialist surgeon, a specialist physician, an anaesthetist, two specialists-in-training (a Senior and Junior Clinical Training Scholar) and senior clinical students.

The specialist in charge of your horse will formulate a dedicated overnight plan for your horse specifying how often it must be checked and when treatments must be given. Every horse receives individual care overnight and the out of hours plans are reviewed for each horse with the overnight clinical team each day. As a minimum, every horse is checked four times overnight at 8pm, midnight, 4am and 8am and more frequent checks and treatments are provided if required by the out of hours plan.

Our team is able to provide hour-by-hour or even continuous monitoring of patients.

If you would like more information about the overnight care of your horse, please ask when your horse is admitted and your academic clinical specialist (Team Leader) will be pleased to discuss this with you.

You are welcome to visit your horse. All that we ask is that you arrange visiting times with the reception team or vet so that we can best accommodate you around busy times or treatments, visiting times are usually between 4pm and 5pm. We want you to spend quality time with your horse and so ask you to work with us to arrange suitable times.

Prescriptions 

Prescriptions are available from our the ºÚÁÏÉç's Equine Practice.

You can obtain Category V (meaning issued by a veterinarian) Prescription Only Medicines (POM-V) medicines from your veterinary surgeon OR ask for a prescription and obtain these medicines from another veterinary surgeon or pharmacy.

Your veterinary surgeon may prescribe POM-V medication only for animals under their care.

A prescription may not be appropriate if your animal is an inpatient or if immediate treatment is necessary.

You will be informed, on request, of the price of any medicine that may be dispensed for your animal.

The general policy of this practice is to re-assess an animal requiring repeat prescriptions every six months, but this may vary with individual circumstances.

Further information on the prices of medicines are available on request.

Our commitment to you

• We aim to provide you with a first-class professional service.
• We aim to provide your animal with the highest standard of treatment and care.
• We understand that when your animal is hospitalised, this may be a stressful time and we aim to provide a means for you to have effective communication with the hospital during their stay.
• If your animal has been admitted to the hospital, we will provide you with an estimate of costs at the start of treatment. Should there be a change to the treatment plan or estimate, we will keep you informed of changes and we will seek your agreement to continue with treatment should the costs increase.
• We will endeavour to arrange re-examination appointments at convenient times and dates for you.
• In the sad event of your animal passing away, we can put you in contact with a bereavement counselling service.

Your commitment to us

• You are expected to pay a minimum deposit of £1000 at the time that your animal is admitted to the hospital, and is not insured.
• An upfront payment to a percentage or the full value of the estimate may be required in some circumstances.
• You are responsible for full settlement of your account at the time of discharge. An account should be settled within 15 days of the invoice date for uninsured animals. Should an account not be settled within this time, reminders will be sent. Any account with an outstanding balance over 60 days will be subject to a 2% penalty charge of the total balance. After due notice to you the client, overdue accounts will be sent to our Central Debt Team and then onto our debt collection agency, incurring a 5% fee of the total balance, should the debt continue beyond 90 days. Further charges may be levied in respect of costs incurred in collecting the debt, such as production of reports, correspondence, court fees, attendance at court, phone calls, home visits etc.
• In the unfortunate event that you need to cancel your appointment, please provide us with as much notice as possible.
• To behave with respect and courtesy toward all of our staff at every point of contact.
• You must keep a valid passport for all equines with your animal at all times, as per Government guidelines - 

Feedback

• We will always do our best for you and your animals. If you have a concern which cannot be resolved informally, please put your concerns in writing to us at equinereception@rvc.ac.uk
• Our full complaints process is available at /equine-vet/information-and-advice/raising-a-concern

Prescriptions

• Written prescriptions are available on request.
• You may obtain Prescription Only Medicines, Category V, (POM Vs) from your Veterinary Surgeon OR ask for a prescription and obtain these medicines from another Veterinary Surgeon or a Pharmacy.
• A prescription may not be appropriate if your animal is an in-patient or immediate treatment is necessary.
• The general policy of this practice is to re-assess a horse requiring repeat prescriptions every 3 months, but this may vary with individual circumstances.
• The British Veterinary Association Code of Practice on Medicines (2000) states: "Once stock has been dispensed, it should not be accepted back into the dispensary. No returned goods should be offered for resale because there may have been problems with storage conditions beyond the veterinarian’s control."
• We cannot give refunds for unwanted medications, due to the legal requirement to dispose of them. We are happy to safely dispose of your unwanted or expired medication, if it was purchased from the ºÚÁÏÉç.

Insurance

• You are expected to pay a minimum deposit of £1000 at the time that your animal is admitted to the hospital, and is not insured.
• An upfront payment to a percentage or the full value of the estimate may be required in some circumstances.

If your animal is insured and a direct claim has been agreed:

• It is important that you contact your insurance company prior to your appointment to establish the level of cover remaining on your policy for your horse’s condition.
• Please bring a valid claim form, along with your insurance policy documents, if possible, to your first appointment. We aim to process claim forms promptly so that insurance companies are able to reimburse you or us swiftly.
• An administration fee of £25.00 is applicable for processing insurance claims.
• You will be required to settle your excess and any uninsured items (such as livery and administration fees) on discharge from the hospital.
• Please ensure that you have an initial claim made with your referring vet if applicable.
• We are happy to liaise with the insurance company about recovery of fees on your behalf, but you may be required to give permission allowing us to do this.
• If the insurance company for any reason does not pay part or all of the amount owing, you will be responsible for the outstanding account balance.
• If an insurance claim is not settled within 60 days we will require you to settle your account in full.

If you have any queries concerning payments, please do not hesitate to contact us:

The Equine Hospital 01707 666 297 between 8.00am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday

Please note that all telephone calls to and from the Equine Hospital may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes in order to improve our services.

Attending your appointment will be considered as acceptance of the above.

Data Protection Statement:  The Royal Veterinary College complies with the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Our full Privacy Notice can be viewed at 

If you do not wish to receive further information about services and events offered by the ºÚÁÏÉç and its charities, please contact our Reception team.  You may also contact us this way if you wish to have access to modify or correct your information.

When your horse is ready to go home, a suitable time will be arranged with you so that full discharge instructions can be explained to you. You will be given a discharge summary of your horses treatment and after care. A full veterinary report will be sent to your veterinary surgeon.

For some conditions, it may be necessary to use diagnostic imaging for your horse.

ºÚÁÏÉç Equine has a whole host of diagnostic imaging facilities on site and, in some instances, we are also able to use diagnostic imaging at our client's premises.

We understand that clients often have questions or concerns about what happens to their horse whilst they are having scans. We have created some handy factsheets about equine diagnostic imaging so you know what to expect from the whole process. Our ºÚÁÏÉç Equine diagnostic imaging team members are always happy to answer any questions you may have

Equine MRI scan client fact sheet

Standing Equine CT scan client fact sheet

Equine Scintigraphy client fact sheet