THE University of Liverpool opened its new £10m small animal teaching hospital in Neston on Friday.

And the development places the university at the forefront of small animal veterinary care in the UK.

The hospital, at Leahurst, provides the most sophisticated therapies and treatments available in the UK.[20ac]

Its facilities include MRI and CT scanning, a keyhole surgery theatre, a radiotherapy unit and digital X-ray technology.

The 86-room hospital, servicing the whole of Northern England and North Wales, can accommodate up to 72 in-patients.

The facility is also used to train the 600 students on the university's veterinary science degree programme in their final years of study.

The launch also marked the opening of Europe's first Hill's Pet Mobility Centre to enable a range of orthopaedic and musculoskeletal research projects.

These could lead to improved treatments for conditions such as arthritis in cats and dogs - a condition which affects 20% of adult dogs and 50% of cats over 10 years of age.

Treatment for cancer in small animals will be provided by the hospital's Johnson Foundation Radiotherapy Unit - the only one of its type in the UK supported by both a therapeutic radiographer and a specialist veterinary oncologist.

The unit's linear accelerator will provide tumour control and pain relief across a broad range of cancers and will also be used to train health science students on the university's radiotherapy degree programme.

The referral-only hospital houses four operating theatres, on of which is equipped with the latest technology for keyhole surg ery.

The hospital's imaging facilities are unrivalled in the UK, boasting two digital X-ray rooms, two ultrasound rooms and a dedicated echocardiography room for scanning hearts.[20ac]

Patron of the university's Veterinary Development campaign which has funded the hospital, the Duke of Westminster, said: 'The University of Liverpool's academic expertise spans a wide range of specialisms which is why the institution is ideally placed to provide such a wide breadth of treatments to animals in this country.

'The hospital is a European centre of excellence in researching, treating and managing illness in small animals.'