Emergency contact: 01707 666399
New emergency referral – Queen Mother Hospital
RVC Small Animal Referrals offers the largest and best equipped emergency veterinary facility in the UK. Our Emergency Referrals Service is in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is staffed by a large team of vets and specialist nurses, who provide acute care.
We have a team of highly trained vets and veterinary nurses, who deal with dogs, cats and other small animal emergencies and are experienced in handling all types of cases. Our small animal emergency clinic receives referral cases 24 hours a day, seven days a week
We require all clients to provide proof of address on arrival for their first appointment. This includes a valid UK driving licence, a utility bill or bank/credit card statement no older than 3 months. We will also need confirmation of your date of birth
Exotics and Small Mammals
Please note that exotic and small mammal emergency referrals are normally seen at the RVC's veterinary practice in London - See Emergencies (Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital)
My pet has been referred for an emergency appointment
Your local vet will have discussed your pets case with one of our Emergency & Critical Care Vets. From this conversation, an estimate cost of treatment will have been given to your vet to discuss with you. Please ensure you have had this discussion with your local vet prior to making your way to us.
Upon arrival, please check in with the reception team, or if after midnight, please use the handset located in entry way to inform us you’ve arrived. Your pet will then be triaged by a vet/vet nurse/final year vet student to assess their condition and take them into the hospital for stabilisation if required. You should have received a link via SMS or email to complete our admission forms, please complete these and return promptly. If you have not received this or do not have a mobile, please alert a member of the team who can provide you with a paper copy.
For life-threatening cases or patients requiring a trolley please use the Emergency Drop Off point, and alert reception. (You can also inform our Security Team at the entrance barrier if your pet is in a life-threatening condition, they can then call ahead to anticipate your arrival.) Your pet will then be triaged by a vet/vet nurse/final year vet student to assess their condition and take them into the hospital for stabilisation if required. Once your pet has been admitted into the hospital please then move to a standard parking space.
If your dog has travelled outside of the UK, please be aware of the current RVC guidelines on dogs with travel history here.
Consultation and treatment
After the consultation your pet may be admitted to the hospital for treatment. At this stage you will be required to pay a deposit before you leave.
If you are Self Funding you will be required to pay 50% of the estimated cost of treatment on admission of your pet and the remainder upon discharge. If you have Insurance we can offer two ways of claiming.
We can process a ‘Direct claim’ for you, meaning that we will invoice your insurance company directly. To do this, we will require a copy of your current insurance policy and any additional documents will be requested at this point, plus a deposit of £100 and a direct claim fee to take on the debt of £25. If the costs exceed your insurance limit we will discuss a further deposit at this time also.
Alternatively, should you prefer to settle the invoice with us yourself first, we will still process your claim as an ‘Indirect claim’, there will be no direct claim fee for this. The insurance company will simply settle with you rather than us.
