“There is a truck in the waiting room”

Below is the true story of Debbie Neutze, former owner and manager of the Guildford Veterinary Animal Hospital, now National Strategy and Services Manager for the AVA.

Imagine that...

A phone call wakes you during the night. This isn’t unexpected because you are on call at your practice but what is unexpected is what the veterinary student says, “Sorry to wake you, I haven’t got a case for you but there is a truck in the waiting room”.

The practice is the Guildford Veterinary Animal Hospital, of which you are owner and manager. Tomorrow, you are set to dot the I’s and cross the T’s to bring in two new partners as part of your succession plan from the business. You wonder if this is going to affect the sale.

You are about three blocks from the practice when you find reason to worry about more than just the sale. The police have blocked off the highway in both directions. At first, they don’t want to let you through but when you politely (and firmly) explain that you have staff at the practice and that you are going to go through, they let you through.

Approaching the practice by foot you can hardly believe your eyes. A truck has crashed through your courtyard and straight through the waiting room. A power pole is snapped in two and sitting on the roof of the practice. The whole of the front of the hospital is gone.

You quickly locate your staff living at the practice and are relived to find that they are ok and all the hospital’s patients are fine. Your first concerns are relieved but there are plenty of others.

There is no electricity (because the power pole is on the roof of the hospital), there is no waiting room, and the whole hospital looks like it has been opened up by a giant can opener. Questions buzz around your head like:

• When will we be able to service our clients again?
• How long will it take to rebuild and return to normal?
• How much is this going to cost?
• How can we secure the premises in the short term?
• What’s going to happen to the sale with the new partners tomorrow?!!

It’s the middle of the night, you are alone, frantic, so you call Guild Insurance, on their emergency claims line. They arrange for a builder to come and secure the practice temporarily. You are grateful that you are finally able to have some peace of mind, go home and get some sleep.

The next day, building inspectors come in and you have to have the roof held up to make the waiting room secure before you can even go in there. Guild helps you arrange professional signage reading, “Business as Usual”, and others to direct people through the back entrance of the hospital. They arrange a new emergency buzzer to be placed in a temporary position (as there are no walls). Amazingly, the sale of the practice to the new partners still goes through!

Eventually you are able to operate out of about a third of the waiting room, so you are able to at least use the cash register. Guild Insurance supplies air-conditioners for use during the rebuild period, and pay for the damaged contents and even some contents that don’t look damaged, just in case there is ‘glass in the dog food’.

Your business continues to grow during the rebuild period, but at a slower rate. You give Guild Insurance your accounts and they work out what impact the crash had on your business. This results in a good payout for business interruption cover, a cover Guild’s Customer Service Executive had recommended to you.

You had always groaned when you had to pay your insurance renewal but now you know better. Now you offer this advice to every one of your veterinary colleagues:

“Make sure that you are adequately covered. Remember not all insurers are the same. And beware of runaway trucks on the eve of selling your practice!”

For more information about insurance for your veterinary practice talk to your Guild Insurance representative on 1800 810 213