The £2m investment by Croft Vets will provide the group with some much needed space, allowing them to provide their expertise to clients from both the region and further afield.

The group currently has seven surgeries, and the addition of the new hospital at Northumberland Business Park West in Blyth will allow those surgeries to operate a daily 'GP' first opinion service to local pets.

This means the hospital, which has been designed and will be built by Meldrum, will act as a centre of excellence for operations, intensive care and recovery for both clients of Croft and for referral patients from other vets.

Meldrum Construction helped Croft with the vision from the start, sourcing land and planning and designing the perfect building for its intended use.

The company, which moved onto the site this week, is now delivering a build plan, aiming to be open in November.

Judith Joyce, director of Croft Vets, said: "Our ethos is Care with Excellence and this new extension of our current premises reflects that.

"Our group exists to provide the best possible care to family pets and working dogs across the region.

"The service we provide is intended to be the best in every possible way, combining a core understanding of our patients needs along with the most up to date technology and medicine practice.

"We aim to be medically effective, accessible and personal offering a friendly service that encourages both direct patients and referral vets to reuse our service time after time.

"The new hospital is an intrinsic way of keeping those values whilst we grow and develop our business.

"Meldrum Construction's understanding of that, along with its budget projects, time plan and reputation made it the only choice to deliver the flagship hospital for animals."

Based in Birtley, Meldrum Construction offers a full or segregated choice of design and build solutions, from smaller scale to multi-million pound projects.

Managing director, Dave Meldrum, said: "There is nothing more satisfying than working with a company who has strong ethics, knows where they want to be, and turns to us to help them achieve that.

"It is an honour to work with Croft on this venture, and so far the planning and design stages have run to plan, with us taking into consideration what the client needs this building to represent and of course, make sure it is perfect for its end use.

"Now we are on site, the hospital will soon start to take shape and we are looking forward to handing the keys over on time and within budget."