Andrew Wills qualified from Edinburgh University with a veterinary degree in 1985, and moved to Kent in October, where he has worked ever since, passing the Certificate in Small Animal Orthopaedics examination in 1993. He worked in Dover, initially treating both pets and farm animals until the practice became small animal only due to declining farm work, until 2002 when, looking for a new challenge, he purchased the Toachim House Veterinary Surgery in Faversham.

Toachim House Veterinary Surgery was originally opened in 1999 as a branch surgery of the Flowers Veterinary Group based in Sittingbourne, treating comapanion animals only, ie dogs, cats and "children's pets" such as rabbits and guinea pigs. Andrew took over the practice in February 2002 due to the owner wishing to downsize before retirement, and it has developed rapidly in the 3 years since then while still striving to provide a high quality, caring service to owners and their pets, and investing heavily in new and upgraded items of equipment. Thanks to Andrew's orthopaedic qualification, several other practices refer complicated cases needing operations such as fracture repairs, ligament augmentation, spinal decompressions/fusions and even total hip replacements. Pets have even come from as far afield as Surrey and London!

In July 2002 Toachim House Veterinary Surgery was recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as an official Training Practice under the Veterinary Nurse training scheme. Nurses are trained within the practice but also spend time at college on a formal course, the whole process taking at least 2 years after enrolment, with a fair bit of 'on the job' training before they enrol on the scheme. Of the 5 nurses at Toachim House, we are proud of the fact that 2 have now qualified entirely via our practice, with a further 2 in training - 1 in her first year and the other in her 2nd year and aiming to quailfy this Summer. Our Head Nurse had already qualified before joining the practice way back when we opened in 1999, so we hope to have 5 fully qualified nurses soon. Trained and qualified nurses are obviously much more able to perform their duties, but importantly are legally allowed to perform a wide variety of tasks such as taking blood samples, setting up intravenous drips, taking X-rays and running various clinics such as post-operative checks and health screening for example Weight Watchers for pets! Not only does this offer a wider range of services to pet owners, it also allows the veterinary surgeon more time to work up complicated cases, and gives the nurses much greater job satisfaction.

In August 2003 Andrew was joined by another full-time veterinary surgeon, Sarah Bignell. Sarah qualified from London University in 2000, and worked in Romney and Ashford before coming to Faversham. She has a particular interest in internal medicine and also the treatment of more exotic species such as reptiles and small mammals, and regularly sees pets whose owners have brought them some distance in order to benefit from her expertise.

Tha practice is open Monday to Friday 8.30am until 6.30pm, and on Saturdays from 8.30am until 12 noon. However, Andrew is rarely working on a Saturday morning - he is far more likely to be 'on his bike'! A keen 3rd cat rider in his second season, he discovered cycling fairly late in life after a bad skiing accident, but has certainly been bitten by the bug, and regularly takes the train in the morning and cycles home to Dover over Chartham Downs later in the day. Most of the clients think he is mad!