Veterinary Surgeon

Job Description

Introduction
Our Client’s hospital in Bury St Edmunds is a large, purpose-built veterinary hospital offering a comprehensive range of first opinion, inpatient, emergency and referral services. The hospital benefits from state-of-the-art facilities, a dedicated out-of-hours service supporting approximately 25 local practices and certificate-level referral services in internal medicine, imaging and orthopaedic surgery.

This newly created Inpatient Lead position offers a unique opportunity to shape and develop inpatient and diagnostic imaging services while working as part of a progressive leadership team committed to clinical excellence and continuous improvement.

Working Hours / Rota
The role combines clinical and leadership responsibilities with dedicated time allocated for non-clinical management duties.

Participation in the out-of-hours rota is required.

Role Description
This role is ideal for an experienced small animal Veterinary Surgeon looking to move into a leadership position or an established clinical leader seeking a fresh challenge.

The successful candidate will lead both the clinical and operational aspects of inpatient care, medical procedures and diagnostic imaging services. Working alongside the Surgical Lead, you will also help develop and expand the hospital’s referral services.

Responsibilities include maintaining evidence-based clinical standards, leading clinical governance initiatives, overseeing audits and quality improvement projects, managing VetSafe processes, supporting inpatient nursing standards, ensuring effective billing procedures and handling complaints related to inpatient and diagnostic services.

The role also includes mentoring recently graduated Veterinary Surgeons and student nurses while contributing to the strategic direction of the hospital alongside the Clinical Director, Head Nurse, Practice Manager and other service leads.

Team Size
The hospital benefits from a large multidisciplinary team including the Clinical Director, Head Nurse, Practice Manager, service leads, Veterinary Surgeons, RVNs, student nurses and dedicated support staff. The practice also operates a full night service supporting approximately 25 local veterinary practices.

Practice Details
This purpose-built hospital offers extensive first opinion, emergency, inpatient and referral services with advanced facilities supporting a wide variety of medical and surgical cases.

The hospital provides certificate-level referral services in internal medicine, diagnostic imaging and orthopaedic surgery and benefits from a high inpatient caseload, making it an excellent environment for clinicians with a strong interest in hospital medicine and advanced diagnostics.

As part of a wider veterinary network, the hospital promotes clinical excellence, collaboration and continuous professional development.

Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate will be an RCVS-registered Veterinary Surgeon holding a certificate in Internal Medicine or Diagnostic Imaging.

Applicants should be confident managing a broad range of inpatients, including critically ill patients, and possess strong diagnostic imaging skills. Experience performing emergency stabilisation procedures and advanced medical investigations is essential.

Excellent communication, leadership and team-building abilities are required, alongside a passion for clinical excellence and developing colleagues. Previous leadership, mentoring and VetGDP Adviser experience would be advantageous. Experience performing CT scans would also be beneficial, although CT interpretation is not required.

This is just some of the information about the job and company, but there will be more questions. Tempus Veterinary Recruitment is happy to get those questions answered for you during the recruiting process. Tempus Veterinary Recruitment is here to make the recruiting process simple and stress free.

Haven’t worked with a recruiter before? Not a problem, key things we want to highlight;

1. All communication is 100% private and confidential.
2. Our service is completely FREE for candidates looking for new roles
3. We have roles that aren’t being advertised, so even if you are actively applying the right role might not be available.