Published: 11 Jun 2018 | Last Updated: 10 Aug 2023 15:35:52

As part of the Royal Veterinary College’s (RVC) commitment to the expansion of its capacity for teaching companion animal general practice and to enhance specialist practice caseloads, the RVC is delighted to announce that on the 1st July it will acquire, through a wholly owned subsidiary - RVC Veterinary Practices Ltd - Acorn House Veterinary Hospital in Bedfordshire. The organisation will continue to trade under its current name.

Acorn House Veterinary Hospital, based in Bedford, offers a comprehensive range of veterinary services within its specialist modern facilities, which includes two operating theatres, an in-house laboratory and five specialised consulting rooms. The practice currently has a team of nine vets, 16 nurses, a kennel assistant, a practice manager, a practice administrator, a dispensary manager and seven customer care assistants.

Stuart Reid, Principal at the RVC, said: “We have been hugely impressed with the dedication and commitment of the Acorn House team members to delivering high quality veterinary medicine and patient care, as well as to maintaining client satisfaction and staff wellbeing, values that are similarly embedded at the RVC. “We look forward to working with them to ensure that the RVC’s clinical services and teaching opportunities continue to be amongst the best in the world.” 

David Church, Deputy Principal at the RVC, said: “I’m excited to oversee this new venture which will not only complement the RVC’s current high quality primary care and general practice services but also provide enhanced opportunities for us to better educate the veterinarians and veterinary nurses of the future.”

Sheldon Middleton, on behalf of Acorn House Veterinary Hospital, said: “The acquisition of Acorn House Veterinary Hospital by the RVC is a perfect fit to maintain the ethos and standards of the practice and build on what our excellent team has already achieved.  We look forward to growing and developing further with the support of the RVC.”  

Notes to Editors

For more information please contact: Alex Cassells or Ploy Radford  Press Line: 0800 368 9520  

About the Royal Veterinary College

• The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) is the UK's largest and longest established independent veterinary school and is a constituent College of the University of London.
• The RVC offers undergraduate, postgraduate and CPD programmes in veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing and biological sciences. 
• It is currently the only veterinary school in the world to hold full accreditation from AVMA, EAEVE, RCVS and AVBC. In 2017, the RVC received a Gold award from the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) – the highest rating a university can receive.
• A research-led institution, in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) the RVC maintained its position as the top HEFCE funded veterinary focused research institution.
• The RVC ranked as the top vet school in the Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science unit of the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, with 55% of academics producing world-class and internationally excellent research.
• The RVC also provides animal owners and the veterinary profession with access to expert veterinary care and advice through its teaching hospitals; the Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital in central London, the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals (Europe's largest small animal referral centre), the Equine Referral Hospital, and the Farm Animal Clinical Centre located at the Hertfordshire campus.