Veterinary Surgical Intern

Job title: Surgical Intern

Location: Wear Referrals, North East England

Job type: Full time

Hours: 45 hours per week over any 5 days Monday to Sunday. First line on call for the referral surgical services together with a surgeon.

Closing date: 25th November 2026

We have an exciting opportunity for a fixed-term Surgical Internship.

Our surgical internship is available to a candidate who is currently completing a Rotating Internship at a Referral Hospital or someone with similar experience. The candidate will be expected to play an active role in supporting the orthopaedic and soft tissue departments, with increasing responsibility over time. They will also take part in discipline specific CPD, research and provide OOH surgery support as part of the wider internship and referral teams.

Applicants must be highly motivated, proactive and passionate about delivering clinical excellence, with excellent social and clinical skills.

Training and support will be provided to allow the appropriate candidate to work towards primary patient responsibility under the direct supervision of a senior staff surgeon. This position is ideal for candidates wishing to pursue residency training, Advanced Practitioner status, or other further surgical qualifications. The internship is designed to develop clinical decision-making, surgical skills and case management within a supportive specialist environment. Publication of research papers and case reports is actively encouraged, with supervision provided throughout. Interns are encouraged to engage in teaching, conference presentations and continuing professional development, and receive support with future career planning and progression.

Our orthopaedic service offers a range of advanced procedures including total hip, elbow and hock replacements, 4K arthroscopy and angular limb deformity correction with custom 3D printed implant design and surgical guides.

Our soft tissue service offers a complete range of specialist surgeries, supported by boarded specialists in medicine and oncology facilitating holistic perioperative care, including instrumentation for intraoperative fluoroscopy (stenting and SUB etc), negative pressure wound therapy and minimally invasive procedures (thoracoscopy, laparoscopy) utilising our state-of-the-art Storz 4K scope tower now offering near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) The service also sees large numbers of thoracic surgeries as part of our extensive emergency case load.

Our hospital facilities include a dedicated ICU staffed 24 hours a day, spacious wards with walk-in kennels, in-house 1.5T Siemens Magnetom Essenza MRI, 16 slice Siemens Somatom Emotion helical CT, digital radiography, digital fluoroscopy, a Samsung RS85 ultrasound system and Karl Storz Laparoscopic/thoracoscopic and arthroscopic imaging systems. State of the art iM3 dental suite installed this year.

We encourage an evidence-based multi-disciplinary approach, supporting a process of continuous learning and a collegiate atmosphere. We have active internship programmes and residents in Surgery, Internal Medicine and Neurology. Our caseload provides an interesting variety of cases and supports ongoing clinical research that is actively encouraged and supported. Linnaeus Veterinary Limited facilitates a highly collaborative approach between their hospitals and colleagues.

Benefits

• RCVS & VDS fees paid
• Generous CPD allowance
• 2 day allowance to attend CPD
• 5 weeks holiday (plus bank holidays and a birthday day off)
• Employer Contribution Pension Scheme
• Professional Indemnity Cover
• Private Health Care
• Staff Discount
• Linnaeus Benefit Hub (Offering a variety of discounts on everyday spending and holidays)

We are committed to providing a great place to work and supporting the physical and mental health of all our Associates. Wear Referrals has been reworded continued excellence from ‘Better Health at Work’. We have a large team of 20 qualified Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) onsite at Wear Referrals, in addition to private healthcare and a confidential Employee Assistance Program.

About us

Wear Referrals (part of Linnaeus Veterinary Limited, owned by Mars) is a multi-disciplinary, specialist veterinary referral hospital in the North East of England, close to the historic university city of Durham, the thriving city of Newcastle, and set between the North East coast and the Pennines. The hospital is also within easy reach of the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District and Scotland.

Our specialist services include neurology, orthopaedics, soft tissue surgery, internal medicine, anaesthesia, oncology, diagnostic imaging and cardiology, expanding into dentistry in 2026, as well as a busy primary care out-of-hours emergency service and in-house hydrotherapy. Our team of 180 staff includes 21 European/RCVS Specialists and 70 registered veterinary nurses. We have active residency programmes in surgery, internal medicine and neurology. We are an accredited as a training venue and examination centre for nurse training.

Click https://vimeo.com/448554524 to see a video tour around our hospital.

We would love to hear from you.

For an informal discussion about this role, please contact our Talent Acquisition Business Partner Howard Stapleton [email protected] , Interim Head of Soft Tissue Surgery Anna Cronin DVM GPCert(SAS) AFHEA DipECVS MRCVS [email protected] or our Clinical Director Ben Harris MA VetMB CertSAM FLS DipECVIM-CA MRCVS [email protected]

To apply, please submit a letter of intent as well as your CV.