EUROPE’S largest veterinary care provider, IVC Evidensia, has received planning permission from Birmingham City Council to open a new state-of-the-art veterinary referral hospital in Longbridge, providing 24-hour care for pets in Birmingham and the surrounding areas.
The hospital will be one of the largest veterinary hospitals in the UK with the capacity to treat up to 10,000 pets per year.
IVC Evidensia, which has over 100 veterinary referral centres across the UK, has been granted planning permission to build a 36,000 sq. ft. greenfield hospital.
The plans come on the back of pet ownership in the UK being at an all-time high – an estimated 3.2m new households in the UK purchased a pet during lockdown.
The referral hospital, which will eventually employ around 100 staff, will accept patients referred from daytime vet practices across the Midlands, including pets which need more specialist treatment or out of hours care.
The hospital will include state-of-the-art equipment, pioneering treatments and specialist-led extended clinical services including: a custom-built intensive care unit for emergency and critical care and a dedicated operating theatre suite.
Vets Now, the UK’s leading pet emergency service and also part of IVC Evidensia, will provide the emergency out of hours care at the hospital.
John Turkington, head of referral developments in the UK for IVC Evidensia said: “We are delighted that permission has been granted for our new hospital.
“It will have some of the finest 24/7 facilities and embrace the latest technology to deliver the best diagnoses and treatments possible.
“Gaining planning permission brings us one step closer to providing industry leading veterinary facilities for communities in Birmingham and throughout the West Midlands.”
IVC Evidensia’s hospital development is part of a wider plan to regenerate 75 acres of brownfield land at West Longbridge to deliver up to 5,000 new jobs, up to 395 new homes and 27 acres of landscaping and open-space.
The new West Longbridge regeneration site is easily accessible by road from the main A38 route linking the M5 and M42 with Birmingham city centre.
Visit https://ivcevidensia.co.uk/longbridge for more information.