Husband and wife team are new specialists at Paragon
A £5 million referral centre in West Yorkshire has made significant strides to bolster its team with the appointment of a new clinical director and a soft tissue surgery specialist.
Paragon Veterinary Referrals has announced Sophie Adamantos, an RCVS Specialist in Emergency and Critical Care, will join the centre as clinical director this month, alongside her husband, Mickey Tivers, an RCVS and European Specialist in Soft Tissue Surgery, who joins as head of surgery.
Both join Paragon from the University of Bristol, where Sophie was senior clinician in emergency and critical care at its in-house referral hospital, Langford Vets, and Mickey was senior lecturer in small animal surgery.
Sophie was the first residency-trained diplomate of the American College of Emergency and Critical Care to be trained in the UK and was also the first RCVS-recognised Specialist in Emergency and Critical Care.
She said: “I’ve been working in academia for some time and my biggest passion is developing people. What appealed to me at Paragon was the opportunity to come in and help develop people at a new centre, in an area which is relatively under-serviced by referrals.
“I see it as a blank canvas, working at a centre which puts people at its heart. I want it to be a place where people come to work because they’re cherished and taken care of and can further their careers.
“On a clinical level, I am also very much looking forward to using my experience to help develop Paragon’s ICU service.”
Mickey’s main area of clinical and research interest is congenital portosystemic shunts and he has published widely on the subject. In addition, he has particular interests in BOAS and abdominal surgery.
He said: “Moving to Paragon is an excellent opportunity to work with a great team in a centre with a strong ethos, to put the pet and the owner first. That is really important to us.
“After spending some time in academia in a very diverse role, it feels good to be back in practice doing surgery, working somewhere we can grow the service and the team. There has clearly been great investment in equipment and people here.
“I’m looking forward to developing the soft tissue service at Paragon further. It is about building the caseload and expanding the techniques and procedures offered for the benefit of the clients and their animals.”
Wakefield-based Paragon, which is part of the Linnaeus Group, opened its doors in February and eventually plans to employ up to 80 staff.
Paragon managing director Ian Monteith said: “We are delighted to have attracted specialists of the calibre of Sophie and Mickey to our team.
“When we started this project, it was always our ambition to grow and attract the very best specialists from across the veterinary world, which is why these appointments represent a real statement of intent for us.
“They will complement an already-outstanding team who have been with us since Paragon launched and, in many cases, for many years before at Calder Vets, our sister hospital.
“We set out our commitment to high-quality, compassionate care from the outset and we are extremely excited about the future as we approach our first anniversary.”
