Sky’s the limit for Malton’s Rainbow Equine Hospital as £1m revamp plans revealed

Sky’s the limit for Malton’s Rainbow Equine Hospital as £1m revamp plans revealed

ONE of the UK’s most respected equine hospitals has been boosted by £1million of investment to revamp its state-of-the-art practice.

Work is underway at Rainbow Equine Hospital on a purpose-built surgical and intensive care facility to house two new operating theatres at its site at Rainbow Lane in Malton, North Yorkshire.

As part of the hospital’s expansion over the next 12 months, the plans also include a dedicated isolation unit with stabling for six inpatients, a new reception building and offices for vets and administrative staff.

Rainbow Equine Hospital offers the most advanced diagnostic and surgical techniques in the UK and is staffed by specialists in equine soft-tissue and orthopaedic surgery, internal medicine, equine anesthesia and diagnostic imaging. It has stabling capacity for more than 50 equine inpatients.

The expansion has been in the pipeline for 18 months and has been committed to by investment from York-based VetPartners, a veterinary group that includes some of the UK’s most respected and trusted small animal, equine and production animal practices.

Rainbow became the latest equine practice to join the rapidly expanding group in August.

The expansion will see the recruitment of additional vets, veterinary nurses and yard staff to handle the increase in patients.

The new operating theatres will increase the hospital’s surgical capacity and the building will be adjacent to their recently revamped and updated CT suite, enabling pre and intra-operative CT to be utilised more effectively.

Rainbow Equine Hospital Clinical Director Jonathan Anderson said: “We are excited about the work because it will enable us to continue to develop our state-of-the-art equine surgical facility as well as giving us more working space to house horses, vets and administrative staff.

“It will mean an even more comfortable working environment with additional examination rooms and offices and, surgically, we can be more efficient.

“Presently only one surgeon can be in theatre at one time. We have to juggle elective and emergency procedures throughout the day. With the additional theatres, we can crack on with multiple surgeries at one time and be able to offer surgical referrals quickly and efficiently. Utilising CT both preoperatively and intraoperatively is very useful for fracture repair in particular.

“If a surgical emergency is admitted, elective procedures will not need to be delayed meaning the best and quickest of interventions can be performed.

“It is an exciting development and we are looking forward to its completion in early 2019.”

The current theatre will be changed into a dedicated ‘standing surgery’ suite, where patients can remain on their feet while undergoing surgical intervention for a range of conditions including kissing spines, distal limb fractures dental and sinus surgery and laparoscopy.

Rainbow Equine Hospital, a Tier 3 Equine Referral Hospital, boasts some of the UK’s leading horse specialists. As well as three surgical specialists, it also has specialists in diagnostic imaging, internal medicine and anaesthesia.

There are also four house vets, surgical and internal medicine residents, six ambulatory vets, 12 veterinary nurses, five yard staff and 10 reception and admin staff.

For media enquiries, please contact Amanda Little, VetPartners Head of PR and Communications, on 07970 198 492 or email amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk