Riversbrook Veterinary Group - Cliff Lane | Vets in Ipswich, Suffolk

Riversbrook Veterinary Group – Cliff Lane is a small-animal practice in Ipswich with roots going back to the early 19th century, and it is part of CVS. The practice offers a wide range of routine and surgical veterinary care, with referral pathways for orthopaedics, soft-tissue surgery and cardiology. Out-of-hours emergencies are handled through MiNightVet.

Services

•Routine and preventive care: consultations and nurse consultations, vaccinations, parasite control, microchipping, six-month health checks, and routine procedures such as anal sac expression.
•Common treatments and procedures: neutering, dentistry, surgery, diagnostics including blood pressure checks, and grooming or nail clipping.
•Additional support services: pet travel documentation and home visits.
•Referral options: referral pathways are listed for orthopaedic surgery, soft-tissue surgery, and cardiology.
•Emergency arrangements: during opening hours, clients are advised to call the practice; out of hours, emergency care is directed to MiNightVet.
•Practice accreditations: RCVS General Practice, Cat Friendly Clinic Silver, and Rabbit Friendly Clinic Silver.
•Recent care examples mentioned by owners: recent reviews include positive comments about cat care and sensitive end-of-life support.

Pricing

Published prices suggest the clinic sits above average, based on a partial sample of comparable services. Recent reviews also include some complaints about consultation costs and frustration at being asked to pay again for further assessment or treatment.

People

•Liz (vet): praised by one owner for compassionate euthanasia care and the follow-up condolence card sent by the practice.
•Michelle (practice manager): named in a complaint about a promised call-back that the reviewer says did not happen.

Reviews

Google reviews: 4.5/5 from 255 reviews. Recent written feedback is mixed, with both warm praise and several clear service complaints.

•Compassionate care: one owner thanked Liz and the wider team for kind end-of-life support and described the condolence card afterwards as especially thoughtful.
•Appointment booking frustrations: multiple reviewers object to the need to phone at 8am on the day for appointments, saying it is inconvenient and hard to manage.
•Concerns about diagnosis and follow-up: some negative reviews describe dissatisfaction with diagnosis, test communication, and delays or gaps in follow-through.
•Cost concerns: several unhappy reviewers felt charges were high for the experience they received, particularly where another consultation was needed.

Reviews for Riversbrook Veterinary Group - Cliff Lane

Note: Showing the 7 most recent Google reviews out of 255 we track in total. Recent reviews may not be representative of overall sentiment.

Lilian Levesque

1 month ago

Look after our cat very well!

theo Slowley

2 months ago

On the day 8am queue for appointments. My mother is a disabled pensioner, so when her dog needs to see the vet I help. But now you cant make an early appointment in advance, but have to call at 8am, on the day!!! I asked what day did they have an early appointment to be told, a couple days later but then said for the 9.30 I wanted would also be call at 8am. People have busy lives so I cant clear a morning just hoping to get an appointment. Why on earth if you have a clear time slot cant you just book it as before. And to say use the Internet my mum is 82, she doesn't have the Internet. It's ridiculous and we'll have to move vets. I did call after posting this to confirm the transfer of my mothers dog to another vet. Had a very similar conversation about could have asked for another day. To which I said again, I had asked for a morning when I didnt need to call but wasn't given the choice. Loving the new vet, had same day appointment but do appreciate, time may tell. Have to add that the new vet said in Bonnie's notes, she probably had a water infection, high protein and crystals in her urine. We were disgusted to hear this as we were never told. Had paid for Bonnie to have the test! But never told she had an infection. It was the reason we went in. And the new vet was also shocked that your vet wanted to amputate bonnies tail when she had a cyst on it. Lucky for her it burst and with home care she was and is completely fine.

lynne rafferty

4 months ago

Very disappointed when a consultation resulted in complete wrong diagnosis costing in excess of £100 when calling to tell vet the problem i diagnosed myself was unable to get necessary medication without further consultation and cost as a pensioner and at this time of year was unable to continue with necessary treatment making my cats recovery longer.

Peta Garner

Gail Jones

8 months ago

You have to call on the day you want an appointment & queue up on the phone like calling a local GP surgery. What a ridiculous process, its bad enough calling a doctor on the day, now this is a thing?! Not impressed!

Ben

9 months ago

I would advise people to look past this vet’s when choosing one for your family pet. Im really not happy with the level of care, advise and support from these guys. It seems to me they’re more concerned with how much money they can get from you before the welfare and treatment of your pet. I expressed my concern of this matter to Michelle (the practice manager) and she assured me she would find out what I asked for and give me a call the next day. This was on 19th of May- 7 weeks ago! We love our pets and they deserve the care and love to be reflected from the vets. This isn’t the place. I would like to give less than a single star rating but I can’t.

Andy Snelling

11 months ago

Liz the vet Laid our Ziggy to rest, as not a nice day for us, but everyone in the Surgery and Liz were amazing. Animal Lovers at this place. Thank you. 7.5.25. We also got an amazing condolence card, from the Vets. Thank you

Riversbrook Veterinary Group - Cliff Lane