County supervisors approve 24-hour emergency care clinic
San Jose – A 24-hour emergency care clinic for South County pets is a step closer to reality.
Santa Clara County Supervisors gave their unanimous consent Tuesday to a plan to find an operator for a trauma clinic in San Martin.
“It’s part of providing services to South County we haven’t had in the past and we certainly deserve,” Supervisor Don Gage said. “I’m going to keep working to get what we need.”
If the county can find an operator to lease a facility, it will build a modular clinic at a cost of about $330,000. Based on the performance of other clinics in the Bay Area, County Agricultural Commissioner Greg Van Wassenhove estimates the clinic will recover costs within a decade.
Once the facility is paid for, the county could use the clinic as a profit center to expand South County shelter and animal control services. It’s possible the clinic will be built this year.
“We looked at it, we talked to different veterinarians and we believe the initial investment we make will be paid back, and after that we can use that money to improve the shelter,” Gage said. “Even if it doesn’t quite pencil out, it’s still the right thing to do for South County.”
Local veterinarians say a trauma center is a critical need in South County because residents are forced in emergencies to drive their pets to Monterey or San Jose.
“Emergency care has become very sophisticated,” said Greg Martinez, part owner of the Gilroy Veterinary Hospital. “If an animal is critical it needs to have 24-hour care, and most veterinarians can’t afford to have their practice and provide 24-7 care.”
If it’s approved, the clinic would operate from 6pm to 8am and on the weekends, and be outfitted with diagnostic and surgical care equipment. It will be mobile so it can be moved if the South County Airport is expanded.
Denise Shirey, the administrator of the Emergency Animal Clinic in San Jose, said recently South County may not support such a clinic, but Martinez said he believes the region’s population growth will make a trauma center profitable. He said a South County shelter could attract business from as far away as Prunedale and Salinas.
“They have to go to Monterey,” Martinez said. “I think the intersecting circles would include a lot of the places that have grown that have a need for this service.”
