History

In 1980 David Beckingham and Jeremy Thomas bought the practice as a going concern. At the time it was a solo vet practice with two laystaff. The branches at Cowes and Lake were manned on alternate afternoons. In 1983 we employed our first assistant veterinary surgeon which enabled us to open a new branch in Ryde. The practice enlarged to four vets in 1985 and had grown to five vets in 1988. In 1991 a branch was acquired in East Cowes, following the retirement of its owner.

Neil Phillips who had joined the practice in 1989, became an equal partner in 1996, and this year saw the completion of our computerisation programme, with connections between all our branches and Newport. Our registration as a Veterinary Nursing Training Centre also took place that year, a busy and progressive time.

Riverbank Veterinary Hospital

In February 1996 design and planning began of a new purpose built hospital to replace our main Newport premises. In March 1997 planning permission was granted and construction begun. We moved in on Sunday 22nd February 1998 and had our opening ceremony performed by David Grant MRCVS of "Animal Hospital" fame, on April 11th, 1998.

With the developments at Newport, it was decided to close the East Cowes branch. However the success of the new hospital meant an increase to six full time vets, and expansion of the support staff to seven veterinary nurses, ten receptionists, three administration staff and an instrument technician (responsible for surgical equipment sterility). The increase in staff, and increasing administration led to the appointment of Alice Winter as Practice Manager in April 2001.

In January 2006 , Riverbank became part of the Pet Doctors Veterinary Group.  Pet Doctors Veterinary Clinics is a group of small animal veterinary clinics dedicated to the care of pets. The founder members of Pet Doctors Veterinary Clinics are David Hodges and Garret Turley who met at Veterinary School.  They qualified as veterinary surgeons in 1991 and  in 1995 they set up practice together in West Sussex and formed Pet Doctors Veterinary Clinics in 1998.