It was twenty-five years ago that I first viewed the five bedroom home at number four Haywards Road and saw its potential as a veterinary clinic.
I climbed up the ridiculously narrow front steps, slippery with frost, and promised myself that some wide deep steps would be a priority for patient safety.
I imagined converting the kitchen into an operating theatre and the bathroom upstairs into an in-house laboratory.
I advertised for one colleague to support me, and had over two hundred responses. I had never conducted an interview before, but after short-listing eight people, I selected Nikki, who remains my right-hand man and practice manager today.
Since then we have been entrusted with the care of thousands of family pets.
We have seen the profession change and adapt, and have ourselves grown and improved.
We have faced the international pandemic, and learnt how to provide a safe service.
I am proud to say that we have already caught up with all postponed vaccines and procedures. We are now working towards reinstating all our well pet clinics.
We have focussed on providing the type of service that we would wish for our own pets, and in providing that service within our client’s budget. And we have stayed true to our ideal of veterinary practice: that every pet should be able to see their own vet, unless that vet is away, or the problem is an emergency, despite others in the profession claiming that this is not possible.
We each striven to be the best that we can be, and this has been publicly recognised in The Mewes Vets featuring in the Best Vets UK awards for the last three years running, culminating in winning the Best in West Sussex Award this year.
I would like to send a personal thank you to my very special, hard working team of professionals who have made this possible, and to all the pet owning families of Mid Sussex who have chosen The Mewes as their vets over the last quarter of a century.