Facilities
The Bell Equine Veterinary Clinic is situated on a 6-acre site in Mereworth, Kent
The Hospital is an approved RCVS equine hospital.
The clinic’s main building houses the reception area, administrative offices, pharmacy, laboratory, radiography room, theatre, nuclear scintigraphy room and 2 general examination rooms (one with stocks).
There are three main barns housing 11 stables and two separate blocks of 12 loose boxes used for nuclear scintigraphy and day cases, along with a dedicated JMB approved stable for height measurement, 16 of which have the facility to be monitored by CCTV. Our MRI and CT scanners are situated in 2 of the barns, along with a dedicated area for our reproduction services including a set of stocks. The isolation unit is a self-contained area completely away from the main stables and has two boxes, also monitored by CCTV, as well as a separate feed room and cleaning facilities.
Other units on the site include, a dedicated area for remedial farriery, a self contained dentistry unit and a post-mortem room.
There are concreted areas for trotting-up and lungeing, as well as a sand school for lameness evaluations, poor performance assessments and for pre-purchase examinations.
Outside paddocks are available for hospitalised horses if deemed appropriate and for mares admitted for AI (artificial insemination) during the breeding season.
Over 1000 horses are hospitalised at the clinic per annum, with approximately 100 undergoing surgery under general anaesthesia. A number of horses also undergo surgical procedures performed standing, in which the horse is sedated and using local anaesthesia can undergo certain surgical procedures without undergoing a full general anaesthetic (such as soft tissue surgery, some laparoscopy procedures and minor orthopaedic operations). Other cases are hospitalised to permit detailed investigations and specialised diagnostic techniques (such as nuclear scintigraphy, MRI, CT, etc), or for medical treatments.
The senior clinicians are assisted by our resident, three hospital interns and nursing staff. The hospital interns live on site, thus ensuring 24-hour care and monitoring of hospitalised patients from the time of admission to the hospital until the time of discharge.