Practice News

Joining VetThing: What it means for you We’re pleased to share some news: Orchard House Veterinary Centres has joined VetThing, a new UK vet-led group founded and led by Dr Ben Hanning MRCVS. We understand that change can sometimes feel unsettling, so we want to be open about what this means for you and your pets. VetThing is part of

Thank you to everyone who took part in our Christmas competition and helped make it such a success. Thanks to your incredible support, we raised over £250 for West Northumberland Food Bank. As well as a cash donation, we have also donated £300 worth of pet food. This will help support local individuals and families who may be facing difficult

After almost 20 years with Orchard House Vets, our much-loved team member Cris Paterson is retiring. Cris first joined us in February 2006, at a time when our Stocksfield surgery had only just opened its doors. Back then, the Stocksfield team had a small team of just one vet, a veterinary nurse, and a handful of colleagues based at Hexham.

Back in December 2023, Graham, our finance and marketing manager, had a brilliant idea to raise money and food donations for the local foodbank while promoting local businesses. The initiative was a roaring success, raising over £1,500 in cash and food donations for the West Northumberland Foodbank. Fast forward to 2025 and he has won a Veterinary Marketing Awards In

Did you know that you are able to book your appointments online? Book an appointment anywhere, any day, any time. When you register for online booking, you create an online account and this online account enables you to see upcoming appointments, and any reminders due. You can also change your details, or your pets details at any time. We have

Jill has decided to retire from Orchard House Vets after 21 years of outstanding service to the practice. We are all going to greatly miss her and words are not easy to come by when you have worked with such an incredible vet, and friend, over so many years. However, Tim has written a statement and so too has Jill.

RCVS Practice Standards Scheme The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS – our governing body) Practice Standards Scheme is a voluntary initiative to accredit veterinary practices in the UK. Through setting standards and carrying out regular assessments, the PSS aims to promote and maintain the highest standards of veterinary care. The RCVS says it ‘offers peace of mind to clients

Not all vet health plans are the same, so it is important to understand the value you get for your money. We have over 1,700 members in our vet health plan which is called the ‘Well Pet Club’. We regularly ask our clients why they are members of our vet health plan because we want to focus our time on

We are writing to our clients because of new RCVS under care regulations for vets mean changes to the prescribing rules by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the regulatory body for Veterinary surgeons in the UK. The RCVS has recently altered the ‘under care’ regulations for vets prescribing parasite treatment (i.e. treatment for worms, fleas and ticks) for patients.

Our Stocksfield surgery is a silver accredited ‘cat friendly vets’. We are very excited to let you know that our Stocksfield vet practice has recently been awarded ‘Cat Friendly vet’ Silver accreditation from ‘The International Society of Feline Medicine’ (ISFM).  This means that our team consider your cat’s well being and comfort during their visit as one of our main

Would you recommend Orchard House Veterinary Centres to your family & friends? Please help spread the word to those you know and to wider public by leaving us a review on one of our social media platforms. We receive some lovely feedback in person and by email. We would greatly appreciate if this could also be shown on our social

We often hear from new clients in Hexham, Stocksfield and Bellingham that a friend or a member of the family recommended us to them, which we are so grateful for. We thought to ourselves that it would be nice to say thank you properly for recommending us, and for being a client to us in the first place! So with

 

To submit insurance claims on your behalf, we need accurate policy information. Policy details can change annually, so please ensure you advise us of any changes as soon as possible. Incorrect information can delay settlement. Please provide us with the following information regarding your insurance policy:-

Please fill in all the details below. Please allow 2 working days before collecting your medication. We may be in touch if any more details are needed. One request form per pet please.

Please fill in all the details below. Please allow 2 working days before collecting your medication. We may be in touch if any more details are needed. One request form per pet please.

Please fill in all the details below. Please allow 2 working days before collecting your medication. We may be in touch if any more details are needed. One request form per pet please.

Every year we choose a local charity to receive the donations from our Christmas charity competition. This year we chose West Northumberland Food bank who are a vital service to hundreds of homes in West Northumberland and Tynedale. We set an initial target of £300 over our two week competition but it was evident on day 2 that this was

Christine Fairbairn, RVN.  We are delighted to announce that on the 24th March 2022, our wonderful veterinary nurse Christine Fairbairn won the award for ‘veterinary nurse of the year’ at the 2022 Petplan awards. The awards are referred to as ‘the pet oscars’. We have been finalists 5 times previous to this event so as a practice we are absolutely

Orchard House Veterinary Centres are delighted to share the news that earlier this month Investors in People conducted an assessment of our surgeries and we have now received notification that we have successfully achieved the ‘We invest in people standard’. Our investors in people assessment was a great opportunity for us to hear from our employees and we’ve learnt a