In-home Euthanasia and Palliative Care Veterinarian Required, London & Home Counties

Are you a compassionate veterinarian who loves helping older pets at the end of their life?

Are you an empathetic listener who is capable of helping families navigate an emotionally challenging time?

Are you OK with some solitude when working and spending time on the road? (And love a good podcast or audio book.)

Would you enjoy doing only three appointments in a day, and not having all the chaos of general practice in your life and earning a good salary?

If this sounds like you, then please read on. We think we have a role that you might enjoy.

About You

You’ll be a veterinarian with at least two years of experience in general practice. During this time you’ll probably have worked out that getting along with clients is really important. We want to hear from you because you’re empathetic to the needs of others and care to help them get what they need.

GP work was fun, but a bit too chaotic. Now you’re now looking for something where the workload is more predictable and manageable. It’s possible you were getting close to being or became a bit burned out.

You’ll be someone who has a love of helping the older grey muzzled pets. You might even be one of those vets who runs past the puppies and kittens and makes a squishy, coo-ing noise whenever you see a grey-muzzled dog, or creaky cat in the waiting room!

As a vet, you’ll have reached the point where you have a feel for how to help clients make good decisions, even if they are difficult ones. A part of which will be the skill of taking complicated information and distilling it down to simple terms so the families understand their options.

You’ll be someone who likes to have the certainty of a process to follow, but can take that process and apply it as the situation requires. In this role you’ll be euthanising pets in their favorite locations – like in the garden, or on a bed, we even recently went to a house-boat on the Thames – so being adaptable to the situation is really important.

You’re an organised person who takes pride in both your professionalism and attention to detail. This matters a lot because we need someone who is reliable at the administrative side of this role like showing up when expected, writing your records on time, applying body tags correctly, answering emails and communicating the plan for a pet in a timely  way. We know that this is not everyone’s forte, but it is yours because you know, the first and especially the final appointments are the most important and impactful interactions vets have with pets and their families.

About Us

Roundwood Pet Hospice exists to help pets live well right to the end, and leave families with enduring, happy memories.

As end of life care vets we’re focused on the stage of life when diagnostics or surgery are no longer needed. We solely focus on end-of-life care advice, palliative medicine and in-home euthanasia for terminally ill pets. Much of our work is helping the family prepare to say goodbye. Then, when the time is right, performing a gentle and unhurried euthanasia in the familiar and loving surroundings of the pet’s home.

Palliative care is appropriate in the weeks or perhaps days when pets enter the final stages of a terminal illness and lifesaving or life extending therapies are, for whatever reason, no longer an option.

In these cases, animals face some challenging but common problems with pain, incontinence, senility or poor mobility. This transitional phase, between life and death, is also one of the hardest periods for pet owners to navigate. The fear of letting go is often accompanied by anticipatory grief, guilt and confusion about when is the right time to say goodbye.

Our team is specially trained to deal with these issues so pets can live their best life, right to the very end.

We currently service the London and home counties areas surrounding the M25 and would like to hear from you if you are available to work in Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey or Kent.

In terms of what we are like as a practice, we think of ourselves as being a bit like a family doctor. We are definitely here to help the local community and their pets. We believe in giving clients the time and attention they need to make good decisions for their pets and in building strong relationships with clients and each other. Though the work we do is with families who are sad, the work itself is usually very uplifting and our clients are incredibly grateful for our work.

And last, but in no way least, a word on our culture. We have a set of values which are baked into our being. These matter because when we live our values, we create an amazing culture. So here they are in short form: Honesty, Conscientiousness, Kindness, Teamwork, Fun and Growth. We’ll happily expand on them in long form when we meet. If you share these values we’ll get along.

About The Job

OK, so thanks for reading all the way down. We’d better talk about this role then.

We are looking for a full-time vet to be available for appointments in the London/home counties areas. Our work volume and complexity is very low. You’ll be seeing 3-4 appointments per day for example. No more

The times for these appointments will always be during the day, we don’t do on-call. We are open weekends. The day structure needs a bit more explanation, but we’ll get into the details of this when we talk.

Between appointments you’ll therefore have lots of downtime. You also will not have to discuss money with clients in this role, all the booking and payment processing is done before you arrive by our Patient Care Coordinators.

There is no on-call associated with this role. And no stress associated with worrying about complications of surgery or drug side effects or whether you remembered to do everything! You’ll rest in your bed each night without the stress many colleagues experience in general practice.

This role is basically perfect for an empathetic vet who is done with the mayhem of general practice life. Someone who wants to help families make the big decisions. Someone who is happy in a car, willing to think outside the box to help families, and probably loves a good podcast or audiobook while driving.

Your role as a Roundwood Hospice Veterinarian will involve many tasks including:

1. Offering in-home euthanasia services to patients across your area.
2. Offering advice and hospice care to geriatric and terminally ill pets – this will be done in home and also via telemedicine.
3. Assisting families with quality of life decisions.
4. Visiting local practices to spread the word about what we do and foster strong bonds with partner practices and drop off ashes for collection.

Qualifications, Experience & Equipment

A degree in veterinary medicine and registration with the RCVS.
A valid UK drivers license.
2 years in practice – any branch of service will be considered.
A car you can use for work.

Salary and Benefits

Base from £40,000-45,000 experience dependent.
Performance bonus up to 60% of base salary.
28 days of paid leave each year plus your birthday.
Additional holiday for every year of service up to 5 additional days.
CPD budget.
Health insurance.
Perkbox rewards.
Mileage claim.

Next Steps

If this role sounds interesting to you and our culture sounds like a place you’d like to work then we’d love to hear from you. To apply, please send your CV and a short cover note introducing yourself and telling us a bit about you using the form at the top of this page.