My name is Bleddyn Hobbs, I am a clinical Director here at Maes Glas Vets and I have been given the challenging task of writing this job advert. I must admit, that in the hope of inspiration I sat down and searched current job adverts, finding them to be vague, the roles seeming daunting and full of the usual wording – you would swear digital radiography was a recent introduction, given that every advert seems to go on about it! I then realised, we have a fantastic team of Vets, Nurses, and admin staff and so, rather than do what everyone else seems to have done, I have written this advert along with the help of our amazing team.

The Team

We are an energetic, social group of people from all walks of life. Surfers, hikers, footballers, rugby players, ice hockey supporters, kayakers, and sour dough afficionados to name a few.

We celebrate diversity and are proud sponsors of our local Pride Festival.

Our practice includes a 32-vet team, including Advanced Practitioners in small animal medicine, cardiology and surgery, allowing us to not only diagnose and treat the majority of our cases in-house, without the need for referral, but also provide support to other team members in their career progression. Further studies are actively encouraged with many of our vets currently undertaking certificates in medicine, surgery and emergency and critical care.

The practice is headed by five young Clinical Directors – an Irishman, an Englishwoman, Two Welsh women, and a Welsh man – all the makings for the start of a cheesy joke if we walked into a bar. We pride ourselves on being friendly and approachable and aim to nurture all members of staff. You will not find us locked away in our office doing paperwork, you will find us in the consult rooms, operating theatres and in wards working alongside you. We believe that no one member of the team is more important than the other.

The Practice and Ethos

Alongside our main hospital in Bridgend, we have four branches across South Wales. We remain committed to excellent clinical care and extremely high standards, with a silver level cat friendly status from the ISFM and five separate “outstanding” RCVS awards.

Bridgend is a large town nestled between the bright lights of Cardiff to the east and Swansea to the West, the rugged Brecon Beacons to the north and the award-winning beaches to the South. This area offers an abundance for you to do in your downtime away from work.

We at Maes Glas pride ourselves on being a friendly and supportive team of incredible people, working out of a purpose-built hospital with all the mod-cons, for a company that imposes no commercial targets on any of our staff. We are experienced in the nurturing and retention of new-graduate vets, with myself having started work at Maes Glas straight from university almost 12 years ago!

2022 graduate Aiden Pang has written the below with regards to his experience at Maes Glas following graduating.

“I graduated from the University of Surrey in July 2022 and started at Maes Glas in August of that year. Originally from Newcastle, the move was a leap, especially since I had never done any EMS here before.

The personal growth I notice in myself since starting is colossal. The variety of consultations each day has accelerated my exposure and understanding of different conditions, helping me become confident taking responsibility of my own cases. Despite having a range of complexities, I've always been reassured I can get second opinions and guidance towards diagnostics and management. This support also extends on a personal level too, noticing all members of the team go out their way to ensure I'm managing okay and helping out where they can. I look forward to my regular surgical days, initially I was quickly helped to be confident with routine procedures, although now I am actively encouraged to further my skillset.”

Yourself and The Role

I remember what it was like to leave University, it feels like yesterday, and I still recognise that although I graduated with day one competencies, it took time for me to develop the confidence in these abilities.

At Maes Glas we are able to structure your learning to include developing consulting, diagnostic and surgical skills with the correct support network, including your own VetGDP adviser and a buddy (a recent graduate for day-to-day support). You will be allocated protected time with your GDP adviser to discuss medical and surgical cases as well as them then assisting you with practical skills when needed.

You will be enrolled onto the Vet Partner Graduate Development Programme, which involves on average 1 day of CPD per month with fellow new graduates from other practices across the UK.

With our surgical caseload, we can arrange for you to scrub in as a surgical assistant on procedures prior to performing them under supervision. Once your confidence and competence has developed, you can fly solo with the reassurance of assistance at any time.

You will be primarily based at the Bridgend hospital. Branch work would only be carried out once both yourselves and ourselves were happy for this to take place, and this would be alongside a more senior vet.

I must emphasise that we are not looking for an experienced and highly skilled veterinarian, we are looking for someone who is excited to become an experienced and highly skilled veterinarian. And we would be excited to join and support you on that journey.

All that we ask of our staff is that they come to work and leave each day knowing that they have done their absolute best.

Rota

All our full-time veterinary surgeons currently work a 1:9 out of hours rolling rota which includes 1-part weekend and 1 week of nights, with the following week off after nights. The remaining 7 weeks are an average 4-day week, and on call free. There is always an experienced second on call vet to provide backup during your week of nights.

We understand that taking a job which requires working on an out of hours rota can be a daunting proposition, but our excellent nursing staff will help you get settled in and you will find that working out of hours will quickly become routine. You will see cases which rarely come in during normal working hours and we find that veterinary surgeons who work OOH develop confidence and skills far more quickly than those that have not and enjoy their exposure to interesting cases. With the added reassurance, that the second on call vet is always available for advice and aid.

Package

The package includes 28 days holiday per year which is inclusive of bank holidays, option to buy/sell holiday, 2 weeks full sick pay and 4 weeks half sick pay, Royal College fees, a professional subscription of your choice , health shield membership and an out of hours bonus for cases seen.

Salary £35,000. Salary reviews will take place every 6 months for the first two years and then annually.

How to get in touch

Applicants are very welcome to have a friendly chat to one of the vets, myself, or one of the other clinical directors before applying or coming for an interview to verify all the truths (and more) written here. Applicants wanting to visit the practice are welcome to come and spend the day with us to ensure that you get a feel for our culture, aiding you in making the right decision. I can be contacted via - directors@maesglasvets.co.uk. What is the worst that can happen? Best case scenario we both realise that we will be the perfect fit for each other, or worst-case scenario we have a good catch up and we wish each other the best with our career paths.