Jon., originally from Somerset, graduated from the RVC in 1999 and spent two years in mixed practice in Dolgellau, North Wales. From there, he moved to Pembrokeshire where he spent seven years in a couple of practices as a mixed practitioner and VN assessor, and then as a predominantly large animal/abattoir vet. He then spent three years working for the State Veterinary Service (now APHA field services). In 2009, Jon. Moved to Aberystwyth where he spent six years as a mixed practitioner and VN assessor. Other duties included a TB-testing assessor for Improve International.

Jon. now works as centre manager for the Wales Veterinary Science Centre in Aberystwyth. Most of his time is occupied by lecturing in all aspects of veterinary science at Aberystwyth University on the Veterinary Bioscience degree, post-mortem examination of animals and as Quality Manager. He has chaired the OV conference for Improve International for the last three conferences.

EBVS® European Veterinary Specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine, RCVS Recognised Specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine
Director of Small Animal Medical Services, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge

After graduation, Nick worked in primary care practice before completing a residency in small animal medicine at the University of Cambridge. He gained both the RCVS and European Diplomas in Small Animal Medicine in 2006, and is a European and RCVS Specialist. He remained at Cambridge as a medicine clinician, before undertaking a Wellcome Trust funded PhD in canine hepatology. He moved to the University of Nottingham in 2013 where he was Clinical Associate Professor in Small Animal Medicine and Oncology for four years. In March 2018 he became Director of Small Animal Medical Services at the University of Cambridge, and is responsible for overseeing the medicine, oncology, dermatology and primary care services, along with running the residency and internship programmes. Nick is a member of the ECVIM internal medicine examinations committee, and was a previous Chair of the RCVS Certificate in Small Animal Medicine examination committee. He was a member of the BSAVA Congress Scientific Committee for several years and Chair between 2014 and 2017.

Head Nurse, Vets Now 24/7 Emergency & Specialty Hospital

Helen Rooney BSc(Hons) CVN CertEd DipAVN (Medical) RVN. Since qualifying in 1996, Helen initially worked for many years in a busy multidiscipline referral hospital, first in the soft tissue referral service and later as the Senior Ward Manager. Later in her career, she spent years as a veterinary nursing lecturer at Myerscough College lecturing mostly in medicine, patient care and emergency and critical care. In November 2016, Helen became the Head Nurse at Vets Now’s new Emergency and Critical Care and Specialty Referral Hospital in Manchester.

Jon graduated from Cambridge in 2004 and spent several years in small animal practice. He completed a rotating internship at the RVC in 2010 and then spent a few months working for an emergency out of hours provider. In 2011 he returned to Cambridge for a surgery residency and was an affiliated lecturer for 2 years after becoming an ECVS diploma holder in 2015. Jon has been a senior lecturer in small animal soft tissue surgery at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Science in Edinburgh since the beginning of 2017.

EBVS® European Specialist in Small Animal Surgery, Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists

Alison graduated from the University of Bristol in 1996. She initially spent four years in first opinion practice. She completed a Junior Clinical Training Scholar (Internship) in 2000 and a three year Senior Clinical Training Scholarship (Residency) in Small Animal Surgery in 2004, both at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC). She was a Lecturer in Surgery at the RVC until 2007. She then worked in private referral practice in Surrey for 6 months before joining Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists in 2008. She works as a specialist soft tissue surgeon, offering secondary and tertiary referrals in all disciplines of soft tissue surgery.

Alison became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2005 and is an RCVS Recognised Specialist in Small Animal Surgery.

As well as providing clinical services, Alison is actively involved in veterinary postgraduate certificate teaching and she is an examiner for several of the certificate qualifications available in the UK.

Gayle graduated from the University of Cambridge and completed her postgraduate training at the Royal Veterinary College in London. She then completed a PhD investigating aortic valve prolapse at the University of Nottingham. She is currently Professor in Veterinary Internal Medicine and Critical Care. She is an American Specialist in Internal Medicine and Emergency and Critical Care and Associate Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging. Her main interests are cardiology, gastroenterology, imaging (particularly ultrasonography), analgesia and emergency and critical care.

Director of VetDentist

Bob Partridge provides veterinary dental services from a dedicated referral practice in North Leeds. Bob qualified from Edinburgh’s Royal Dick Veterinary School in 1984 having served briefly in the British Army with the Royal Engineers. After a period in mixed, equine and small animal practices he established his own practice in Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England in 1988. His interest in Veterinary Dentistry was established in 1986 when he was one of the first vets in the UK to have access to a high-speed air driven dental machine. This led to Bob being a founder member of the British Veterinary Dental Association (BVDA) in 1988 and acting as Treasurer. The practice in Harrogate grew and in 1992 Bob created the first Veterinary Hospital in the whole of North Yorkshire (England’s largest county). An integral part of this development was the “Peter Emily Dental Theatre” and the numbers and complexity of the dental cases (both internal and referred) increased. The practice opened a further branch practice in Ripon. In 1998 he attended his first European Veterinary Dental Society meeting and has been a regular attendee since. In 2011 Bob achieved Diplomate status of the European Veterinary Dental College. This was one of his proudest moments as it represented many years of work and allowed him to use the accolade of Recognised European Veterinary Specialist in Dentistry. He is also now a Recognised RCVS Specialist in Veterinary Dentistry. In 1999 Bob founded Pet Smile Month, an annual pet dental health promotion. This led to over 1500 veterinary practices in the UK providing free dental check-ups for clients, together with distributing dental health promotional materials and widespread media coverage in the press, radio and TV. In 2016 VetHospital was sold to Medivet, allowing Bob to concentrate on his referral and dentistry work and he set up a new purely referral practice in North Leeds in 2018.

RCVS Recognised and European Veterinary Specialist in Small Animal Surgery

Scott graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2001 and his first job was as a Temporary Veterinary Inspector during the Foot and Mouth Epidemic of that year. He then spent six years in general practice, both mixed and small animal, before moving to Croft Veterinary Hospital in Northumberland to work with Malcolm Ness and undertake an ECVS Residency. He completed his RCVS Certificate in Small Animal Surgery in 2009, became a European Specialist in Small Animal Surgery in 2013 and an RCVS Recognised Specialist in 2014.
In 2013 Scott moved to North Downs Specialist Referrals in Surrey before moving to Willows Referral Services in Solihull in 2015. He left Willows in 2017 to pursue his dream of establishing his own surgical referral hospital which has resulted in frank. Pet Surgeons. based in Leeds.
Scott is actively involved in clinical research and CPD provision. He has published extensively in the veterinary literature and has lectured widely in the UK, Europe, USA and Australasia.

Stephen Barabas is a graduate of Glasgow University veterinary medicine and zoology faculties. He has worked in mixed practice in the west of England and North Wales, and in Cumbria during the 2001 FMD. He was previously the technical director for VetPlus and Schering-Plough, both within the UK, USA and Internationally. He has been secretary and past President of Central Vet Society, and sits on the BVA Council as the London Regional Representative. He runs two veterinary companies selling innovative equipment and IT services to vet surgeons, nurses and their businesses, VBS Direct Ltd. and Animal Oracle Ltd. In addition, he has a human medical company that works directly with the NHS and Private Healthcare. He is also an Honorary Laser Consultant at St Thomas and Guy’s Hospital in London.

Prue graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 1993, and completed a surgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She became a Diplomate of the American and European Surgical Colleges in 2000, has been an examiner for the RCVS and the European Surgery College, and is currently a member of the RCVS Surgery Board. Following five years running the Soft Tissue Surgery Unit at the Animal Health Trust, Prue has worked in private referral practice since 2005. She has a particular interest and expertise in Surgical Oncology, but enjoys all aspects of soft tissue surgery and is always happy to discuss problem cases or potential referrals.