Westport Veterinary Clinic opened its new premises this week

The new state-of-the-art surgery houses the very latest veterinary facilities and equipment. It also has on site customer parking and a disabled access ramp.

Where Preston Road had just two consulting rooms, the new practice has seven, offering a significant increase in vet and nurse appointment availability, as well as hosting a wide range of services.

It also boasts an additional specialist dental suite and three operating theatres – one for routine surgeries, another for orthopaedics and one dedicated to felines. There is also a pharmacy dispensary, laboratory, radiography and diagnostics room and digital dental x-ray facilities.

Clinic director and senior vet Stuart McMorrow said: “We’ve been in our small practice for such a long time and been bursting at the seams as we’ve been getting busier and busier.

"Its been a very tough weekend moving; all the team have been helping out. It’s been quite emotional leaving the old Linlithgow practice as we had a lot of good fun times there.

“I first viewed Mill Road on February 21, 2022, and we moved exactly a year to the day later. Now that we are here it feels brilliant!”

Westport Vets is dedicated to providing the best care for pets and the practice has been specially designed to keep stress to a minimum for patients. The new design has a spacious reception with a large waiting area, containing separate areas for cats and dogs. There are also new walk-in kennels for large dog breeds.

Some of the consult rooms also have direct outdoor access. Direct access to consult rooms will also help nervous or anxious animals and there is a dedicated bereavement space where private access in or out of the building may be preferred.

Stuart said: “The staff have been brilliant, coming in over the weekend and working as a team to get it all together.

“We couldn't have done it without our South Queensferry and Drum Brae practices help covering our work. It has been a full team effort – we literally couldn't have done it otherwise.”

The building also contains large spacious areas with opportunities to host future CPD events, training sessions and organised talks for veterinary professionals.

Stuart added: “The move has also created new jobs; so far we have hired three new vets, an additional receptionist and doubled the cleaning staff hours and are now looking to hire a vet care assistant. We will also be looking for more nurses and vet care assistants and increasing our team of vets in future.

“We will have an official open day but we don't have an exact date as yet. It will probably be in March or April, and we are hoping to get the Dogs Trust involved with this event as they are the main charity we are working with just now.

“Now, we’re just looking forward to welcoming all of our clients to a much nicer practice and thank them for their patience while we were at the old practice, as well as welcoming new clients too! Our books are always open and we have plenty of space.”