The concept and practical implementation of VSS as a business was developed initially by Dr Kim Smith, with subsequent involvement from Dr Bruce Mackay and Dr Philip Moses over the preceding 12 months.  The vision of the practice was encapsulated in the mission statement - ‘to provide the best possible care for our patients, clients and our referring veterinarians’. All three vets worked together in different capacities at a large general practice on the south side of Brisbane, with Kim and Bruce the driving force for establishment of the practice.  

The initial location was in Compton Road, Underwood. This site was established in partnership with the Animal Emergency Centre. The AEC at that time was an after-hours and emergency practice that was owned by a large number of general veterinary practices in Brisbane, providing overnight and weekend treatment for their patients. Dr Fraser Galloway from the AEC and Kim worked together to establish the nuts and bolts of the practice. The availability of overnight and weekend care was a good solution for co-location with a specialist practice.  

Many of the people who worked at VSS on the first day stayed with the practice for many years - Kim Smith retired as a partner in 2011 and moved to establish a new practice in Darwin; Sylvia had many key roles with VSS until 2019; and Bruce and Katie worked for many years at VSS also. Dr Philip Moses worked from time to time at VSS and continued to complete his training requirements in Sydney and Gainesville, Florida before joining VSS full time as a partner in October 2001 - he worked full time at the Jindalee practice until his passing in 2024 and was active as a director in seeking new opportunities for VSS.

VSS grew rapidly in the first 5 years. The practice at Compton Road encompassed a 400sqm floor space, with another room across the car park that contained a CT machine and underwater treadmill. The CT was the second CT machine in veterinary clinical practice in the southern hemisphere. 

Dr Terry King joined the practice as a partner from the University of Queensland teaching hospital in July 2002 (small animal medicine/emergency and critical care), followed by Dr Jason Mouatt in 2006 (Small Animal Surgery), when he returned to Queensland from Melbourne. Both Terry and Jason retired as partners but remained involved in the practice and profession for many years. 

Lindsey Connell joined VSS and established an Animal Physiotherapy practice in 2003. Dr Peter Barron joined the internal medicine team as a registrar and subsequently sat his Fellowship exams. The nursing ranks also swelled with Anita Parkin (now Employee Engagement Officer), and the two Karens (Kemp and Kelly), along with Linda Coad joining VSS. Fiona van de Linde and Sue Moore also joined VSS in this period.Dr Brad Gavaghan offered a mobile cardiology and imaging service in Brisbane, and his relationship with VSS began in 2001. Dr Gavaghan has performed interventional cardiology procedures since the early days of the practice.

The Compton Road site had rapidly outgrown its footprint, and new premises were sought in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The VSS intern program started in 2006 with Dr Kisa Baldwin and, in 2007, Dr's David Cook and Wendy Agnew were part of the intern cohort and are still with the practice today. VSS has had more than 125 interns since the program began. The intern program blossomed into a residency system and many VSS interns have gone on to achieve success in general practice, specialist qualifications and further studies (such as PhD qualifications), or become zoo veterinarians and senior government veterinarians, among many other paths. 

As of December 2020, more than 35 veterinarians have been through specialist training while working at VSS, or entered a training program after being a VSS intern. Anita Parkin has pioneered specialist nurse/technician training in Queensland, achieving multiple Veterinary Technician Specialist qualifications and inspiring a number of current team members to pursue this. During this time, the AEC was bought by Drs Rob Webster and Simon Lemin, and the successful business that is now the AES has partnered with VSS Underwood, Carrara and Jindalee.

The current VSS premises at Underwood opened on March 3rd, 2008 with Carrara opening on the September 15th that year. The establishment of two sites in one year was a large undertaking, and these projects were led by Dr Jason Mouatt. Dr's Mackay and Mouatt, along with nurses Sarah Welburn and Emma Robb, established the Carrara practice. 

Dr Gordon Corfield joined VSS in 2008 and, after a year of working between Underwood and Carrara, became a key part of the Carrara practice, and then a partner in 2012. In addition to physiotherapy, a number of other disciplines became part of the fabric of VSS, including Drs Gavaghan and Meyers (cardiology), Dr Gary Wilson and subsequently Dr Aaron Forsayeth (dentistry), Dr Mike Shipstone and his team at Dermatology for Animals, and Dr Maureen Thomson and Kathleen O'Connell in Veterinary Oncology. 

Dr Rachel Korman joined VSS in 2011, initially as a small animal medicine clinician, but has subsequently achieved specialist qualification in Feline Medicine. In addition, the Pet ICU further developed and was led by Dr Terry King, with a passion for Emergency Medicine. Professor Steve Haskins from the University of California visited VSS a number of times through his relationship with Dr Terry King, which was instrumental in improving the standard of the ICU and the care provided to critically ill patients. 

This was the period where VSS developed strong relationships with the University of Queensland and the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists, along with the AVA and the Veterinary Surgeon's Board of Queensland, with many staff taking roles in teaching and organisational leadership.

We worked through split teams, closed state borders, client access restrictions and movement restrictions between our sites. 

While 2020 was a big year, we moved into 2021 and beyond looking forward to the future for VSS. 

We have continued to uphold our purpose and mission of the practice, which is the provision of the best possible care for our patients, their families and our referring veterinarians.

The VSS Gala Ball was first held in 2016 and is an annual celebration of the practice and particularly those people who embody the spirit of VSS.   

The VSS Conference was established by Philip Moses and David Simper and has grown from its first event in 2017 to a large, multi-stream conference that hosted over 400 delegates in 2020.

Peter Barron became a partner in 2016 as Dr's Bruce Mackay and Terry King reduced their work loads, and David Cook became a partner in 2019 as Jason Mouatt stepped back from his clinical workload. David has subsequently transitioned to a role working with the management team, which has recently been bolstered with practice managers at each site. 

In mid 2019, VSS surgery began a peripatetic service in Toowoomba with the team at RedVets, a practice established by Dr David Hall, a former VSS intern.