Veterinary nursing dominated the event held by the RCVS to celebrate the launch of its new Royal Charter at the House of Commons last week. 

Over 200 guests attended the occasion, which was sponsored by the MPs Neil Parish (Conservative), Angela Smith (Labour) and David Heath (Liberal Democrats).

The new Charter, which came into effect on 17 February, sets out the objects of the College and underpins many of its core functions such as the Practice Standards Scheme. However, the main focus of the event was the impact the Charter has had on veterinary nursing. Specifically how it recognises veterinary nursing as a profession and empowers the VN Council to set standards for training and CPD.

Professor Stuart Reid, RCVS President said: “However, there is one more piece of this jigsaw that is missing. We would like to increase further the confidence of the public in veterinary nurses with formal statutory protection of the title veterinary nurse. It is simply unacceptable that unqualified individuals should be able to use the same title as a well-qualified, properly regulated professional.”

Kathy Kissick, a registered veterinary nurse and Chair of VN Council, commended the hard work it had taken to get a new Charter, adding: “I am so very proud to stand here as a registered veterinary nurse and an associate of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Registered veterinary nurses should wear their badges with pride.”

watch?v=lKPLaxto6xw

Nick Stace, RCVS CEO, closed the event by outlining how the College was fulfilling its strategy to become a first-rate regulator citing the streamlining of the complaints process, the new alternative dispute resolution (ADR) trial and the Mind Matters Initiative as just some of the ways in which the College is making a positive contribution to the welfare of animals, the public and the profession.

Picture shows (Left to right) RCVS President, Professor Stuart Reid, Neil Parish (Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton), Angela Smith (Labour MP for Penistone), Kathy Kissick RVN (Chair of VN Council) and RCVS CEO Nick Stace.

A new book written by a man who is both married to and brother of a veterinary surgeon (not the same one, I hasten to add), offers a husband's take on a vet's life.

Author Steve Ankers is married to Margaret Ankers MRCVS (Acorn Veterinary Surgery) and brother of John Prescott MRCVS (now retired, but remains a consultant to Robson & Prescott).

His book, called It's a Dog's Life for the Other Half, is brimfull of funny anecdotes, including: holding hands with a famous actress inside a cow's rectum; a dog who ate a Cliff Richard cassette; a cat who ate a Chihuahua but spat out the tail and a vulture who travelled hundreds of miles on a car roof-rack.

Terry Jones (you know, the Python) described the book as "Hilarious and eminently readable".

It's a Dog's Life for the Other Half may be the literary equivalent of a busman's holiday for the members of this site, but I'm half way through and it's one of those rare books that's guaranteed to bring a smile to your face at least once a page.

It's a Dog's Life for the Other Half is available now from all good bookshops, including Amazon RRP £12.99. It is also available as an e-book.

Scrubs Etc Limited has announced the launch of Steribond, a new skin adhesive notable for the fact that it is sterile and can be stored at ambient temperature for up to 18 months.

The product has so far only been launched to a limited number of people at the London Vet Show last November. 

According to the company, Steribond is as strong as a 3.0 suture for external sutures and can therefore be used in place of sutures and staples. It has a 10 second setting time, and will stay in place for between 5 to 10 days, depending on the site of injury and other factors.

The product has a precision applicator with a transparent reservoir, allowing the user to see how much adhesive is available and that the applicator is primed. The company says that it allows for a cosmetically neater wound closure, which can be important to customers. In addition, it is a no-sting product which Scrubs Etc says can remove the need to sedate the animal in come circumstances, thereby reducing costs. Steribond is also showerproof. 

Steribond is currently on special offer, priced at £83.64 (usual price £102.00 incl. VAT). 

For more information, contact Scrubs Etc Ltd on 0870 080 2332 or see: http://www.scrubsuk.com/steribond-veterinary-skin-adhesive-box-of-10-devices.html

The Veterinary Practice Management Association (VPMA) has produced a new webinar on the subject of client debt management and made it available for members and non-members alike. 

The 45-minute webinar: Debt Management: Prevention Is Better Than Cure is presented by Mike Brooks from veterinary-specialist debt recovery agency, dsl.

VPMA President Renay Rickard (pictured right) said: "Debt can affect any business, but, because of the role vets play as care-giver in an emotionally-based animal-owner relationship, we are particularly vulnerable. This is something that is commonly brought up by members at our regional meetings and events, and it’s a real dilemma for them how to juggle being strict with payment policies against owner expectations and misperceptions of the cost of veterinary medicine.

"This has been a very popular topic in both our regional meetings and with our webinar and we wanted to open it up to more people to help them tackle this topic in their practices. The feedback on this webinar has been very positive. Mike gives clear guidance on how to set up payment protocols that will minimise debt in such a way that maintains the client-practice relationship. There’s also information on how to recover existing debts. It makes sense to prioritise tackling this issue as if we’re not paid, then we can’t deliver the service that we are expected to, and that our patients need.

"We’re pleased to open this webinar up to all practices as a Christmas gift, and hope it will also highlight the support that is available through VPMA membership."

The webinar can be accessed through a link on the home page of the VPMA website www.vpma.co.uk.

RCVS President Chris Tufnell has chosen five charities to be the recipient of this year’s RCVS Christmas Box, a £3,000 annual donation to the charity of the President’s choice.

Chris will also be donating any money he raises throughout the course of his Presidency to those same charities.

His chosen charities are: Vetlife, Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA), the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), Hearing Dogs, and The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust (GHDT).

Chris said: "I chose the charities because I'm dedicated to charities that have a wide effect. The GHDT and the PDSA, by improving the health and welfare of animals, directly benefit the health and wellbeing of the communities in which they work. The GHDT dramatically improves peoples’ lives economically by increasing the working lives of their animals, almost all of which are transport animals, while the PDSA enhances the lives of the less well off by allowing them to keep animals and afford their veterinary care.

"Riding for the Disabled Association and Hearing Dogs for the Deaf then both use animals to help people, strengthening this vital human animal bond that runs through all of these charities. You have to witness the interaction between deaf or disabled people with the dogs and ponies respectively to fully appreciate how much this means to them. Unlike single interventions, these charities provide assistance that keeps on giving.

"Finally, none of this is possible without a healthy veterinary community and Vetlife plays a significant part in ensuring this. Good mental health and wellbeing is essential to the delivery of a good service, and it's important that we do everything we can to ensure that any veterinary professionals that suffer get the assistance they need.”

The charities have already been in touch to thank Chris and the College, and to detail how it will help their activities.

Graham Dick, Vetlife’s Honorary Treasurer, said: “Vetlife is currently expanding its vital support services to meet the changing needs of the veterinary community so we are sincerely grateful that Chris Tufnell has chosen our charity to benefit from his fundraising activities during his year as President. It is heartening that all the major veterinary organisations are so supportive of Vetlife and eager to work together to address the issues that many people in the veterinary community are struggling with." 

Heather Armstrong, the Director of the GHDT, said: "We would like to give our very sincere thanks to Chris Tufnell, President of the RCVS for choosing us as one of his charities. Over the years we have relied on volunteer vets from UK to provide training to our staff and to Gambian livestock workers. This is helping to increase Gambian veterinary capacity and we hope is also giving British vets a small insight into global veterinary problems. The British veterinary profession should be very proud, it has enabled us to achieve so much in the last 14 years and we are immensely grateful to each and every vet who has been out to help including Chris, who has kindly helped us in the past with training."

Rosie Gibbons, Challenge & Community Events Fundraiser UK at the PDSA, said: "The donations received through the RCVS’ President’s Fund to PDSA will ensure that someone’s much loved pet will receive the treatment and healthy life they deserve. It will also ensure that our veterinary teams can continue to educate people about responsible pet ownership and issue preventative treatments, making the lives of so many animals much more bearable in the future."

Sal Atkinson, Fundraising Manager for the RDA, said: "We are thrilled that Chris has chosen RDA as one of this year’s RCVS President’s Fund charities. RDA relies on voluntary donations such as this to enable us to provide life changing therapy through horses to disabled adults and children in the UK. We currently have over 3,000 horses and ponies who work with our riders, carriage drivers, volunteers and equine advisors and this support will really help us to offer more opportunities to disabled people in the community."

The President’s Christmas Box donation is made every year in lieu of sending out RCVS Christmas cards. Previous recipients have included Worldwide Veterinary Service, Mind, Canine Partners, Hounds for Heroes, and the Veterinary Benevolent Fund.

A group at the Royal Veterinary College is conducting a landmark survey investigate the veterinary profession's approach to patient safety, and the degree to which lessons are learned from mistakes. 

The survey, believed to be the first of its type, is being conducted by MRes student Mark Turner MRCVS (pictured above right), under the direction of Martin Whiting and Elizabeth Armitage-Chan. It's based on a tool used in the human health care sector to monitor care quality in hospitals and G.P surgeries.

All veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and practice managers in small animal practice are invited to complete the survey, which is confidential and has received research ethics approval from the RVC.

Mark said: "We believe this survey could represent a significant milestone in the profession's understanding of patient safety. This topic is still in its infancy in our industry, but there is already evidence to suggest we lag some way behind the NHS in our application of important safety principles such as openness and 'learning'.

Without this sort of safety culture, the profession risks missing important opportunities to improve quality and safety for the animals in it's care. One of the questions we would like to answer is: 'When mistakes occur in practice, are lessons routinely being learnt to prevent the same thing from happening again?' 

He added: "In the NHS this subject has received a lot of media coverage after stories like the Bristol heart scandal and the enquiry into Mid Staffs Hospital. And our health system now understands that patient safety relies on a whole organisation effort to maintain standards. What we don't know however is how well we are doing in this regard."

Please do take take some time to complete the survey, and SHARE this story with your colleagues (buttons below). It's an important piece of work that should really benefit the profession. You can also discuss the project with Mark here.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VetPatientSafety

Zoetis Business Consulting has released figures showing that Profit Solver, its financial analysis tool, has delivered an average EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) growth of 36% for the 28 UK practices that have used the new service since its launch.

Profit Solver was first launched in the USA, where the company says more than 300 practices have now benefited from the service.

Zoetis says that traditionally, veterinary practices have set their prices by simply adding a set mark-up, without knowing which services make a profit or loss and without understanding exactly how overall practice profit is being generated.

Profit Solver instead uses the practice’s own data to calculate the exact cost for the 130 most commonly performed veterinary services, representing 90% of the revenue generated by the practice. It then combines labour, inventory and equipment costs with time-and-motion studies for each service, and assesses the variance between cost and price to reveal profit or loss.

By using a collection of cost data, which staff perform which part of the procedure, how long the procedure takes and what equipment and materials are used, Profit Solver calculates the correct pricing to both cover costs and deliver a pre-determined profit margin.

Implementing Profit Solver is done with a Zoetis business consultant who guides the practice through the process, from data collection to examining the time-and-motion studies. They discuss the level of profitability the practice needs to deliver and help analyse prices to achieve this goal whilst preserving the price-point of highly competitive services and covering all the practice’s costs.

Ian Camm, Group Director of B&W Equine Vets in Gloucestershire heard about Profit Solver from a vet in a neighbouring practice who was impressed with how it had helped his business. Ian discussed Profit Solver with his Zoetis account manager and booked an appointment with Zoetis Business Consultant Anthea Pike who has helped him implement the software across B&W Equine Group.

He said: "Initially I was concerned that Profit Solver would suggest we put prices up where we felt that we would not be able to - people shop around for their veterinary services these days and many services are very price sensitive. The first stage in the process addressed this by looking at our figures, calculating the cost price for each procedure and then, by comparing with our fees charged, identified where we were losing money. The big question was whether we would be comfortable to increase our fees on loss-making procedures. The beauty of the system was that by looking at a large number of procedures which were done frequently, very small increases in fee would total to a significant improvement in the bottom line.

"The software has made us recognise where the real costs are and how to address these areas accordingly, for example we have identified that current stud packages are not profitable. One of the problems in arriving at true costs is the difficulty in accurately allocating time to various procedures when several different vets are involved or an expensive scanner is used, which can have a significant impact on the results. It’s early days, but I can already see the difference that Profit Solver could make to our bottom line and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it providing the practice is prepared to make changes in light of the results. We are looking at improving our bottom line by a six figure sum over a 12 month period with what we hope, will be hardly noticeable price rises.”

For further information visit www.zoetis.co.uk/businessconsulting.

Ceva Animal Health, maker of Adaptil and Feliway, has launched its popular annual competition in which practices are invited to set up displays about fireworks in their waiting rooms and post a photograph on the company's Facebook page in October.

Additional credit is given if the display includes a den, and the top ten displays win a luxury chocolate hamper. 

Ceva says the aim of the exercise is to highlight preventative steps pet owners can take to manage their pets' firework fears and the benefits of building a den to help calm and reassure dogs during the firework festivities,

Claire Russell, pheromone product manager at Ceva Animal Health, said: "Our display competition is one of the highlights of the veterinary practice year with veterinary professionals creating innovative displays that capture the imagination of their clients and help educate them on the preventative measures that they can adopt at home to help manage their pet’s firework fears."

Ceva has a range of marketing materials for veterinary practices to use in the competition, including waiting room materials.

For further information, contact your local Ceva territory manager.

Recruitment agency Recruit4Vets has published the results of two small surveys it conducted amongst veterinary surgeons and nurses to investigate typical rates of pay for permanent and locum veterinary surgeons and nurses.

251 veterinary surgeons and 124 veterinary nurses took part in the Permanent Salary Survey. 109 veterinary surgeons and 51 veterinary nurses took part in the Locum Pay Rate Survey.

The majority of respondents to the Permanent Salary Survey (69%) worked in the Midlands and south, but the survey didn't make any allowance for experience or qualifications, so it's difficult to read much into the reported figures. However, they were as follows:

The Locum Pay Rate Survey also made no allowance for experience or qualifications, but it may be that locum pay rates are less experience-sensitive than permanent salaries.

The average charge rate for locum veterinary surgeons was £210 per day, and for veterinary nurses, around £13.50 per hour. The majority of the locum respondents (69%) worked in the Midlands and south.

Interestingly, 53.5% of the locums polled said that demand for their services had increased over the year.

If you are a locum, don't forget to complete your profile on VetNurse.co.uk and add your flag to the VetNurse Locum Map.

The successful trial of a new welfare assessment grid for zoological animals, published in the Veterinary Record, is set to improve their welfare, according to the authors.

Researchers from Marwell Zoo, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Surrey, trialled a series of monitoring strategies on primates and birds to help zookeepers ensure the health and safety of animals in their care.

According to the authors, the introduction of the practice over a period of 13 weeks at two zoological collections in the South of England, clearly demonstrated the level of physical and psychological wellbeing of the animals, and the effect of certain interventions.

The welfare assessment grid requires daily monitoring of a range of factors, such as the animals' physical condition, their psychological wellbeing and the quality of the environment, as well as the daily procedures they experience. These factors were not all previously part of the regular health checks that zookeepers were required to assess when they were undertaking animal welfare audits. In each area the primates and birds were scored, helping to monitor their progress and highlight any potential problems.

Although welfare protection of zoo animals is enshrined in both European and domestic legislation, monitoring it comprehensively in zoos has proven difficult due to the absence of clear and consistent guidance.

Sarah Wolfensohn, Professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Surrey, said: "Ensuring a high standard of animal welfare is paramount for any zoo, but it has not always been possible. This innovative system will give zookeepers clear guidance on what they should be looking out for in terms of physical and psychological characteristics in animals, which will help monitor their overall wellbeing.

"Zoos are a key part of educating us all about our environment and the animals we share it with across the world, and we all want to know that the animals we do see in zoos are being given the best possible care for their welfare."

Reference

1. Adaptation of the animal welfare assessment grid (AWAG) for monitoring animal welfare in zoological collections. W. S. M. Justice, M. F. O'Brien, O. Szyszka, J. Shotton, J. E. M. Gilmour, P. Riordan and S. Wolfensohn. Veterinary Record. 181,43.

Photo: Amur Leopard ©2017 Marwell Wildlife

The RCVS has launched ViVet, a new programme designed to ensure veterinary professionals are at the forefront of technological innovation in the animal health sector.

ViVet (derived from the Latin word ‘vivet’ meaning ‘it will thrive’) will, says the College, provide a variety of resources and support to help the professions keep pace with change and remain at the forefront of animal healthcare provision.

Chris Tufnell, RCVS Senior Vice-President, helped develop the scope of the ViVet programme during his presidential year. He said: "This is an ambitious project for the College to embark upon but also very important for the future relevance and survival of the professions. Technology in the animal health sector is developing rapidly, such as the growth of telemedicine, wearable and implantable devices to gather health-related data from our animals, and low-cost genomic sequencing.

"These technologies could have a disruptive effect on the veterinary sector, so it’s important to encourage and support veterinary input at an early stage to enable the professions to shape their development and ensure that animal health and welfare is a foremost consideration.

"ViVet will help veterinary professionals to engage proactively with innovation in animal health, so that they can embrace and drive change and are not side-lined by it."

The Vivet website (www.vivet.org.uk), which was launched simultaneously at the College's inaugural Innovation Symposium in London today, contains a number of resources to showcase new technologies and innovative business models.

Anthony Roberts, Director of Leadership and Innovation at the College, said: "The aim of these resources is to help veterinary professionals harness the immense opportunities that innovation can bring to animal health and welfare by providing practical advice on areas such as launching new products and services and, in turn, encourage innovators to think about how the expertise and knowledge of the veterinary professions could input into new technologies.

"Furthermore, the programme will also help the College gain insights into the animal health market and how it is evolving. This will allow us to develop a regulatory framework that is relevant and adaptable to 21^st century technology, while continuing to foster and support responsible innovation."

ViVet will also continue to organise events like today’s live-streamed symposium, which brought together thought-leaders from across the animal health, technology and business sectors, and provided a forum to discuss the opportunities and threats presented by innovation in the veterinary sphere, the impact it may have on the professions and how they are regulated.

Further details about the RCVS Innovation Symposium, including the full programme and speaker profiles, are available at www.rcvs.org.uk/innovation. Videos of speakers and a written report of the proceedings will be available from www.vivet.org.uk in due course.

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) reports that at the end of a hotly contested Moral Maze style debate held at Congress last week, only 28% of the 329 delegates agreed with the motion: Corporatisation is inevitable and will benefit vets and their clients.

The debate, which was described as 'robust but good-humoured', was moderated by BEVA past-President Madeleine Campbell, sole partner at Hobgoblins Equine Reproduction Centre.

Keith Chandler, former BEVA President and member of the acquisitions team at Independent Vet Care and Karl Holliman, partner and director at Cliff Veterinary group and past chairman of XL Equine, argued for corporatisation.

Their supporting witnesses were Lesley Barwise Munro of AlNorthumbria vets which was sold to CVS in 2015 and Julian Samuelson a former managing partner of Bell Equine, which was sold to CVS earlier this year.

In the opposing corner were Andrew Harrison, a partner at Three Counties Equine Hospital and Tim Greet, who recently retired as an equine partner at Rossdales.

Their supporting witnesses were Louise Radford MRCVS, who now works in the pharmaceutical industry and Nenad Zillic, partner at the Barn Equine Surgery.

As the moderator called 'seconds out', opinion was relatively evenly divided, with 44% of the audience agreeing with the motion and 56% disagreeing.

The pro corporatisation team advocated that obvious commercial and business advantages, together with the scale and diversity of a corporate, can give vets greater potential for a more flexible career path and advancement within the industry, and a more sustainable working career in equine practice.

Karl Holliwell pointed out that corporates enable greater purchasing power, better health and safety resources, improved career structure and the freedom for employed vets to focus on clinical expertise rather than becoming bogged down with practice management.

Keith Chandler went on to argue that selling to a corporate is a solution to the problem of succession planning. In a climate of unwillingness for younger vets to buy in to practice, selling allows partners to realise the value they've built up and release that equity to do something else.

This is all very well, said Tim Greet, on the anti corporatisation panel, but the good reputation the profession currently enjoys is based on service to clients and above all the animals in our care. Clinical rather than commercial elements drive practice and partners are light on their feet and can respond quickly to decisions without referring to "a ponderous corporate hierarchy".

Tim also argued that clients like continuity and the quickest way to lose them would be to send in different vets. A bespoke approach to client care was needed rather than hard targeting.

Andrew Harrison went on to suggest that the only vets who really benefit from selling out are those who have one eye on retirement. Younger partners may be able to pay off the loan they took out to buy into practice in the first place but are then likely to take a considerable drop in salary and be given a middle management job, moving from the "pilot seat into the passenger seat." He argued that young vets cannot afford to buy into practices because the industry is being "fuelled by the corporates who are falling over themselves competing to buy equine practices and squeezing out our fellow professionals."

Pro corporatisation witness Julian Samuelson maintained that since Bell Equine has been sold to CVS there has been no change to client service, no restrictions on clinical performance and that no targets have been imposed to achieve set revenues.

Anti-corporatisation witness Louise Radford made the point that big corporates could exert pressure on pharmaceutical companies to drive down prices, which would reduce their capacity to invest in research and development trials and CPD, to the ultimate detriment of the veterinary industry.

The session closed with 72% of the audience disagreeing with the motion Corporatisation is inevitable and will benefit vets and their clients.

BEVA President Jon Pycock said: "Whether we like it or not corporatisation of equine practices is on the rise. But it shouldn’t mean that the future isn’t going to be viable for independents too as there is a role for both to co-exist. Importantly, this should mean that vets and their clients will both continue to have choices."

Vets Now, Manchester is hosting a full-day ECC CPD event on Thursday, 20 June 2024, at the Mercure Bolton Georgian House Hotel in Bolton.

The event will offer vets and vet nurses six hours of CPD across five streams, covering topics such as initial fracture treatment, stick injury management, post-op orthopaedic patient care, and handling clinical complaints.

Simon Hagley, an Emergency and Critical Care specialist at Vets Now Manchester, has helped develop the program and will run a session on acute kidney injury.

He said: "We have one of the largest emergency caseloads in the country, therefore we’re well placed to share best practice with the profession to enable vets and vet nurses to feel confident when dealing with emergency cases. "

There will be 23 lectures over the course of the day, across five streams: CPR, Vet Stream, Vet Nurses Stream, Client and Colleague Communication, and Pathology.

The sessions will be delivered by experienced Vets Now clinicians, dedicated nurses, communication experts, and VPG experts. 

Later in the year, the Vets Now 24/7 hospital in Glasgow will be offering free evening CPD events at the Hilton Doubletree, Westerwood, all focussing on ECC.

The first of these events, on 05 September 2024 will see Lead OOH Veterinary Surgeon John Sheppard from Vets Now, Glasgow run an out-of-hours session on ‘What happens after dark, shouldn’t leave you in the dark’. 

The Manchester event is priced at £80+VAT per person, which includes refreshments, lunch, and on-site parking.

https://www.vets-now.com/professionals/vet-cpd-events-courses.