Vet Hospital Port Shepstone Covid-19 lockdown operational changes

Published 26 March 2020 by Dr Renier Delport (BVSc.).

Filed under Featured, SOPs, Veterinary Products, Veterinary Services.

Tagged with 2020, Covid-19, lockdown.

In response to the nationwide lockdown announced by President Ramaphosa (27 March to 16 April), please note the following:

As an essential health service for our animal children, Vet Hospital Port Shepstone will remain operational with the following changes to our SOPs.

Consultation hours will be from Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 11:00 and on Saturdays from 9:00 to 11:00. Upfront, telephonic bookings are essential. New clients are still welcome. Clients without an appointment will be asked to stay in their vehicles until a consultation spot is available. Consultation will only be for sick or injured pets and conditions that might need treatment.
For pet food, tick and flea treatment and medications, our vet shop will be open Mondays to Fridays from 08:00 to 13:00 and 09:00 to 12:00 on Saturdays. Clients are urged to phone us upfront to check availability of products and make arrangements for payment and collection. To prevent avoidable contact, upfront EFT payments will be preferred over card and cash payments.
There will be no official consulting or vet shop hours on Sundays and public holidays.
Outside operational hours, the veterinarian will be available for emergency call-outs only, which must be communicated by phoning the landline prior to arrival. Callouts will be subjected to our normal after-hours surcharge fee.
If the caller hears a message that our lines are “not in use anymore” (when phoning from a Telkom line), please try phoning from a cell phone.

We will be running on skeleton staff and only necessary vaccinations and procedures will be performed. Unfortunately we will not be performing any elective procedures (i.e. spays, neuters, annual vaccinations, pedicures, bird wing clips and dentals). Primary puppy and kitten vaccinations will still be offered. There will be no Vaccination Tuesday and/or First Puppy/Kitten Vaccination discounts offered during this period. Vaccine and sterilisation SMS reminders will be postponed until after the lockdown. We will still be sending tick and flea product SMS reminders.

We will return to normal operational hours on 17 April 2020, unless we are advised otherwise.

Please note that this is a fragile time for many industries. Due to possible changes in our supply chain, some items and medicines might be limited or become unavailable during this period – which might affect our services and ability to supply products and medicines.

For any further information, please keep an eye on our website and Facebook page.