SIX decades after setting up in Wellington, Mount Vets is moving out of the High Street to new premises being built near Cades Farm.

The veterinary hospital, which employs about 45 people and treats tens of thousands of animals a year, has outgrown its existing premises, says vet and partner Charlotte Freeman.

The new hospital will be sited on about 1.75 acres of land and the building will have separate entrances and areas inside for the farm and small animal parts of the practice.

The small animal section will include four consultation rooms and two operating theatres – the existing premises only has one.

It will also have a designated dental suite, about treble the number of kennel spaces for cats and dogs, and separate x-ray and ultrasound areas.

A better isolation unit will be sited away from the main hospital to allow barrier nursing of infectious animals and more car parking spaces will be available.

The new hospital has been a long time in the making with planning permission obtained in 2012 after several years of work leading up to approval.

Work began on access to the site in April last year and on the groundworks before Christmas, and the vets hope to be working from the new hospital by this Christmas, ideally by October.

Charlotte said: “Our existing building has served us well for so many years but we are really excited about the move. Having a purpose-built hospital will make us run much more efficiently because we have more staff and clients, and because of the work we are now doing in the hospital and the level of equipment we have. It will be a much better working environment for everyone – staff, clients, patients.”

The small premises in Lancer Court with consultation room and retail area will remain after the move to the new hospital so clients can buy medication or see a vet if they cannot make it to the main building.

The High Street premises was established just after the Second World War and was extended in the 1980s when it became one of the first practices in Somerset to gain Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons hospital accreditation.

Today it has six small animal vets, several of whom specialise in areas such as ophthalmology, small animal medicine and small animal surgery, and ten large animal vets. It also has seven nurses, plus three or four night nurses, six receptionists and a reception manager, a practice manager, book-keeper and payroll employee. It can offer 460 appointments a week and has two vets operating six hours a day.For more on the new veterinary hospital visit Mount Vets’ blog at www.mountvets.wordpress.com and its Facebook page, mountveterinaryhospital