About This Role
This vital leadership role at Kentdale Referrals is part of the hospital's senior leadership team, working closely with the Hospital Director and leading the vet team. It is a fantastic opportunity for a Veterinary Specialist in Surgery, Neurology, or Anaesthesia who has a passion for mentoring, leadership, and further development at a senior level, while still having an opportunity to continue with some clinical duties.
Responsibilities
- Lead the vet team in the delivery of all aspects of clinical quality, operational efficiency, development of the hospital team, customer service, and commercial performance
- Provide a clear strategic vision and operational clarity
- Create a high-performing culture that is challenging, supportive, and collaborative, while developing leadership and clinical capabilities across all associates
- Design and implement lean, simple, and customer-centred systems and processes that deliver high-quality clinical care
- Create a culture of high-quality care, quality outcomes, and customer service
- Ensure effective governance and assurance controls are in place to enhance quality and outcomes, including the use of risk assessments and audit, learning and development, and technical and service development
- Carry out clinical duties as a veterinary Specialist
- Contribute to the delivery of annual/long-term performance reviews and future strategic/operating plans for the hospital
- Identify and implement innovative ideas that lead to the development of the hospital and the wider Linnaeus Group
- Develop and deliver a shared vision to members of the clinical team, engaging and inspiring the team to contribute to the development of clinical activities within the hospital
- Effectively lead change across the vet team through ensuring a collaborative approach with associates and ensuring that the reasons for change are effectively communicated, understood, owned, and implemented
- Focus on the veterinary team, build a high-performing team through the attraction and retention of highly skilled and capable clinical associates
- Create a high-performance culture through effective communication by demonstrating an awareness of different communication styles and behaviours and responding to these
- Create the local clinical strategy ensuring that all members of the clinical team are involved and that proposed initiatives and programmes enhance quality and service outcomes
- Deliver the highest quality clinical care and outcomes with focus on safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, and person-centred care
- Create and implement quality improvement activities including audit, risk assessment, and clinical governance processes, benchmarking with other referral practices and responding to learning opportunities
- Create a culture of professional development including effective CPD, student placements, residency and internship programmes, and clinical research
- Ensure compliance with all statutory, legal, and regulatory areas relating to clinical practice
- Input to Linnaeus-wide accreditation standards and other national projects and initiatives
- Be accountable for delivering veterinary clinical quality, efficiency and productivity, business growth, people metrics, associate engagement, and customer experience
- As a member of the SLT, be accountable for the development and delivery of the annual budget and financial targets including sales, staffing, stock, consumables, capital expenditure, pricing, cost control, and debt management
- Create a culture and be a role model for building positive empathetic relationships with clients, offering excellent levels of service with clear communication including obtaining appropriate consents, having fee estimates in place, providing clear treatment recommendations, and effective complaint oversight and management
- Create a culture and be a role model across the clinical teams for building effective support relationships with referring vets, including clear communication, outcome correspondence, competitive CPD programmes, advice/service support, and issue resolution
- Use metrics and market intelligence to identify the hospital’s current clinical positioning, its strengths, risks, and opportunities to create a future change plan for improvement and growth across the performance metrics
- Work with the Head of Nursing Services and veterinary service heads to define an achievable clinical strategy that aims to deliver the best veterinary care and provide additional products and services
- Identify unique services and lines where market opportunities exist and work with the HD and SLT to create business cases for growth and investment
- Create a culture where the clinical team work collaboratively with the marketing team and BRM to effectively understand the customer needs and enhance their experience
- Ensure that the clinical and marketing agendas enhance brand awareness and perception, and support business growth through effective vet relationships, enhanced clinical services, CPD programmes, and website support
- Contribute to product, service, and growth opportunities within the wider Linnaeus group and Mars Veterinary Health
Requirements
- Veterinary Specialist in Surgery, Neurology, or Anaesthesia
- Passion for mentoring, leadership, and further development at a senior level
- Previous leadership and line management experience of a medium-large team of vets
About the Company
Kentdale Referrals is one of the leading small animal referral centres in the UK, delivering excellence in pet healthcare for over 10 years. The company has a new hospital opening later in the year. Currently located on the edge of the beautiful Lake District in Milnthorpe, Cumbria, Kentdale is a specialist-led referral centre treating a wide range of surgical patients in its veterinary hospital. Its service teams include Orthopaedics, Neurosurgery, Soft Tissue Surgery, and Physiotherapy. The new hospital will be based on the outskirts of Carnforth at J35 M6.
