Dave Nicol, MRCVS
Job Description
Senior Veterinary Surgeon - Parkvets.
Availability
Based at the Footscray Hospital.
Consultations available:
- Tuesday 9-11am and 4:30-6:30pm at Mottingham.
- Thursday 9-11am and 5-7:00pm at Belvedere.
For an appointment with Dave call the relevant branch.
Biography
Dave joined Parkvets as a locum in Jan 2000. After nine months with the group he was promoted to the position of Branch Manager at the Mottingham surgery. There he resided for the next five years, a time he remembers as the "best of my career so far".
"Being at Mottingham for so long gave me the chance to build up such strong relationships with my staff and clients, it was an amazing experience."
During his time at Mottingham Dave developed his general skills to become what he describes as a "bit of a veterinary all-rounder", although as any of his clients will tell you his real passion was for promoting the importance of dental health in pets.
During this time Dave's achievements included the development and implementation of the annual Breath Busters event which sees the group offering clients a free dental health check for one month each year.
Sadly all good things come to an end and change was inevitable as Dave was offered promotion into the management team. "Leaving Mottingham was as hard a decision as I've had to make, ultimately though you must follow your ambitions".
And follow them he has. Dave sat and passed his Open University Certificate in Management in October 2005 and since then has been appointed a director of the company with responsibility for management and development of the veterinary team.
My responsibility now, says Nicol, is to try an make sure that we maintain and build on the high level of care Parkvets clients have come to expect.
One thing he says however is that all his clients old and new can rest assured that regardless of what "hat" Dave is wearing (whether vet or manager) his decisions always have an unexpected outside influence.
"It's as true now as a Director of the practice as it was when I was a vet that my cat plays a great role in my decisions - if I'm faced with a tough choice at work that is going to impact on pet owners then I ask myself what I would want to happen if I was the customer and my cat Chas (pictured right) was the patient. Usually after that the answer is pretty clear."
Additional Info
In addition to his general GP skills, Dave has completed further training in the disciplines of dentistry and cardiology.
Dave is a licensed government vet (LVI) so he can issue pet passports.
Dave is also the Managing Editor of Parkvets.com.
