The first – and only dedicated 24-hour – veterinary facility in Kamloops will be opening its doors next month.

Phases Veterinary Emergency Hospital co-owner Dr. Adrian Helmers says there has been a lot of community support for this facility, which will be located in the old Nature’s Fare building at 1350 Summit Drive.

“We had not a lot of funding going into it as we needed to fundraise for some start up costs. The community really rallied behind that one and we were able to get the ball rolling and get things started,” Helmers said on NL Mornings.

“And then luckily enough we found a funding team through one of the local community banks. They decided to jump one especially once we got that outreach from the community.”

Helmers and Dr. Megan Broschak – who also operate the Neighbourhood Veterinary Hospital in downtown Kamloops – have been working on this new emergency hospital for a couple of years.

Helmers says the new hospital will take the pressure off the current on-call model for emergency veterinary care that is staffed by a rotating team from six clinics in the evenings, on weekends, and holidays.

“With the city really growing an expanding, that service has really started to take a toll on local veterinarians,” Helmers said. “We have had to reach the point where we are having to minimize those services that we offer, but what happens in that is now the community suffers, pet owners suffer, and pets suffer.”

“It is time for a full 24-hour dedicated facility so that is the gap we are trying to fill.”

Helmers also says the new hospital will also help reduce some of the costs for emergency vet care for Kamloops pet owners.

“Because the facilities are closed, you are having to come in and open up a whole hospital for a single call,” Helmers said. “You’re having to call a veterinarian in, call a nurse in, call an assistant in, sometimes even a bigger team if it turns into a surgery so that does come with call fees and emergency fees.”

“We’ll be able to have a discounted emergency consult…which will be a little bit higher that your standard vaccine appointment but all of the other services will be completely average with the other clinics in town. We will also have the ability to provide some more financial support as being a bigger hospital and emergency facility, it gives us access to other aspects and avenues of financing for pet owners.”

Helmers says while they have hired a number of people to work at the new emergency hospital, they could use a few more to ensure that there are no lapses in service.

“We do have a lot of vets [in Kamloops] who are dedicated but it has become a choice of our personal health and wellness versus our ethics and morality really,” Helmers said. “That has taken a big toll on the community, so hopefully with this emergency facility we will dedicated staff who will want to do this type of work coming in but then they can have that work-life balance that this is their primary job and they get days off.”

“Right now, at the emergency hospital it will be myself and Dr. Broschak who will be picking up the slack and essentially living at the new facility to make sure it is always staffed but hopefully that is not for the long term.”

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