Our Community

Today we’re taking a closer look at our primary care out of hours service and the brilliant team who will make it all happen.

The Ralph will be a 24-7-365 referral centre meaning that primary care practices will refer patients to our specialist clinicians day and night. We will also be offering a primary care (‘first opinion’) out of hours service to local practices who ask us to do so. All veterinary practices have to provide 24-7-365 medical cover for their clients. Some choose to ask another practice, in this case, The Ralph, to provide this for them when they are closed. When an emergency arises in the evening, overnight, on the weekend or on a Bank Holiday, our member practices will direct their clients to contact The Ralph.

The types of conditions the primary care out of hours service will provide treatment for include:

• Vomiting
• Diarrhoea
• Trauma (e.g. cats hit by cars)
• Wounds and other injuries
• Poisoning
• Difficulty breathing
• Seizures (“fits”)
• Pyometra (uterine infection)
• Heart failure
• Eye problems
• …and much much more.

The primary care out of hours service at The Ralph will be among the best equipped and expert emergency services in the country with a highly experienced team and access to advanced equipment and a wide variety of diagnostic tools. These tools include X-ray, ultrasound, blood pressure monitoring, electrocardiography (ECG), and patient-side blood testing. And there will always be a specialist (Board-certified Diplomate) in Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) available to provide advice if needed.

A dedicated team of vets with an interest in ECC will deliver our primary care out of hours service. They will be supported by veterinary nurses and patient care assistants. The veterinary team will share a rota to ensure they do not work long stretches of night shifts. They will have plenty of time off during the month too. It is important our team take good care of themselves so they can provide compassionate excellent care to our patients.

So without further ado, here are our primary care out of hours vets…

Elliot Kneba

Elliot is a small animal emergency clinician based out of Hertfordshire. A graduate of the Royal Veterinary College, Elliot spent two years working in a busy 24-hour hospital, followed by an internship at the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Royal Veterinary College. He has been passionate about ECC since before veterinary school when he worked as a veterinary nurse in Florida. He is a true believer in The Ralph mission and core values and feels honoured to be a part of the team.

Elliot shares his home with his lovely wife Erika and their two rabbits, Oogi and Naga. He’s an avid podcast listener, lover of science fiction, and obsessed with ultrasound. His greatest achievement to date is receiving the Royal Humane Society Resuscitation award for performing CPR on a man who was hit by a car outside of his clinic. He survived and made a full neurological recovery.

Harriet Thomas

Harriet graduated from Cambridge University in 2004 and completed a small animal internship at the Royal Veterinary College where she developed a passion for Emergency and Critical Care.

From there Harriet moved to the Blue Cross Animal Hospital in Victoria, London where a busy and varied caseload further increased her enthusiasm for ECC. She was able to both complete an RCVS Certificate in ECC and become an RCVS ECC Advanced Practitioner. In 2016 Harriet was delighted to be offered a sole charge ECC role at Vets Now which further increased her experience of managing emergency cases. Harriet is most excited to be joining the team at The Ralph to further pursue her passion for all things Emergency and Critical Care.

Harriet is really enjoying her relocation to the countryside. Her family have recently acquired 5 chickens and she and her twins are loving the mud and fresh air!

Chiara Crino

Since Chiara graduated in 2014 at the University of Messina (Italy), she has developed her interest and passion for the management of ECC patients. From 2014 to 2017 Chiara completed a PhD course in Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care at the University of Messina. During this period she visited the Intensive Care Unit of the faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands for 6 months. From November 2017 to October 2018 Chiara worked at the emergency department and ICU of the “Istituto Veterinario di Novara” (Italy). Chiara is excited about her move to England and being part of Team Ralph.

Chiara lives with a lovely rescued cat she adopted one year ago after he was found traumatised in the street, with a broken pelvis. She likes nature, swimming (especially in the sea), horse riding and music.

Tasmin Siu

Tasmin graduated from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh in 2012. Since then she has worked in a large practice, in South Yorkshire, predominantly as an out of hours vet. Tasmin has almost completed her RCVS Advanced Practitioner Certificate (Cert AVP) with only the designation ECC exam left to take. Tasmin’s aim is to become an RCVS ECC Advanced Practitioner.

Tasmin lives with her boyfriend, who is also a vet, and their lurcher Mowgli, who she homed in her previous job. Tasmin’s job is her number one passion and she enjoys lots of other hobbies such as painting and martial arts.

Bec Hyland

Bec heralds from Australia and gained a Bachelor of Veterinary Science from the University of Melbourne (many moons ago!). Shortly after she completed an internship at Cornell University in New York. Bec then came to the UK where she worked in various London-based veterinary centres and hospitals. She started working solely in an ECC capacity approximately 6 years ago. Bec hopes to pass her final exams (yikes!) and complete her Post-Graduate Certificate in Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care in March 2019.

Bec lives in Egham with her partner in crime, Claire and two very handsome felines named Arnie and Harry. She likes to travel and go home to Australia and loves to be outdoors, especially when there is sun!

Thanks for reading about our primary care out of hours service, and for getting to know the team.  Stay tuned for our next instalment as we continue our tour around the hospital!

Take care,

The Ralph Team