FAQs

Reflection helps you get the most out of your CPD, and it doesn't have to be time consuming. If you use the 1CPD recording platform you can reflect on your learning by recording a voice memo or short note. Some useful prompts for your reflection are:

• How did this CPD relate to your learning needs and plan?
• What are the key things you learned?
• What impact has the CPD had on you as a professional or in your practice?

If you reflect on your CPD and conclude you didn't learn anything, this can still be helpful as it can help you plan what you will do differently in the future. 

To register a new premises, please complete the Register of Veterinary Practice Premises Form (see the 'Related documents' box below). You will also need to pay a £34 registration fee.

Payment can be made online via the RCVS website. After your completed form is received, you will receive a pre-registration email with log in credentials to set up an account to pay online.

Please submit your completed form by email to: [email protected]

If your circumstances have changed and you would like to remove your name from the Register, then you can do this online via 'My Account' as part of your annual renewal, as well as at any point during the year.

Vets: Please ensure you remove your name before 30 April or you will need to pay a proportion of the fee for the new registration year.

Where no voluntary removal request is received before 1 June (vets) or 1 January (VNs) then your name will be removed for non-payment. Please note this may affect the fee you pay, should you need to restore to the Register. 

All removals from the Register must be approved by a member of the Registration Department and may take up to three working days to be approved. You will receive confirmation by email once your name has been removed.

Please note, if you are off the RCVS Register for more than 12 months, you will need to produce confirmation of your good standing before your name can be restored to the Register again. A certified translation of the certificate (or letter) will also be required if it is not issued in English.

Direct Debits are collected on an annual basis and cannot unfortunately be made by instalments.

Direct debits can be set up, amended and cancelled via your My Account area online.

To ensure your fee is collected by Direct Debit it must be submitted at least 12 working days prior to the collection date.

The annual fee is automatically debited from your bank account each year when it becomes due. You are advised to check your bank account shortly after the collection of fees to confirm if the money has been debited successfully.  

Having prescribed POM-V medicines, if the veterinary surgeon is not present when there is a request for the medicine to be repeated, the veterinary surgeon must:

• Authorise each transaction individually before the medicine is supplied; and 
• Be satisfied that the person handing it over is competent to do so.

A veterinary surgeon could meet the requirement to authorise each transaction by:

• Handing over a medicine personally following a consultation, or instructing a fellow team member to dispense/supply the medicine;
• Making a note on a client’s record that repeat prescriptions could be supplied to the client;
• A team member taking a call from a client and putting a medicine aside for the veterinary surgeon to authorise before being supplied;
• In the case of a client unexpectedly coming into the practice, by a phone call to the veterinary surgeon, to authorise the supply.

Whichever method is used there must be an audit trail to show that the medicines has been prescribed by a veterinary surgeon.

Note:  A Suitably Qualified Person (SQP) in Great Britain, i.e., England, Scotland, and Wales under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 (as amended), is under similar requirements for the prescription and supply of POM-VPS medicines. These requirements are also a PSS Core Standard requirement for veterinary nurses who are also SQPs in Northern Ireland.

As per the RCVS Controlled Drugs Guidance, discrepancies between the amounts recorded as used, the volume of the product left in the vial, and the total stated volume must be avoided.  The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (‘VMD’) advise that pharmaceutical companies try to ensure that every bottle of medicine is precisely filled but some small variability may occur.  This may result in discrepancies regarding the amount of Controlled Drugs used when taking into consideration the volume remaining in the container.  There may also be some wastage within the needle and hub of the syringe each time the product is withdrawn, known as ‘deadspace’.  The Home Office has advised the VMD that discrepancies of up to 10% should not cause undue concern.  Reconciliation at the end of each bottle is recommended to avoid consolidation of errors.  Obviously, a balance of LESS than expected should be treated with greater concern.  While efforts should always be made to minimise wastage, the Home Office, the VMD, and RCVS Practice Standards Inspectors are all aware that some wastage due to deadspace will be unavoidable and these small discrepancies should always be recorded.

A Standard Operating Procedure (‘SOP’) should be in place, detailing what to do in the event of a discrepancy. The BSAVA state that one way of accounting for deadspace volume is to add this to each dose dispensed, but the volume is likely to vary, depending on the manufacturer of the needle and syringe, and the size of the syringe used - typically this is 0.05mls.

In reconciling, the RCVS recommends estimating by eye, making a scale on an empty bottle (for example), and then measuring a full bottle against it, or for more accuracy, weighing the bottles and recording weights.  Physically withdrawing remaining volume from a multi-dose bottle to allow for it to be accurately measured via needle/syringe, before returning the drug to the bottle, is not recommended, due to a health & safety risk of repeatedly drawing out volumes of controlled drugs, increasing the risk of them blowing back into someone’s face, and of course, increased wastage.

The legal requirement for the registration of veterinary practice premises is in the Veterinary Medicines Regulations (VMR).

The professional requirement for recording where all medicines are stored or kept (and keeping that record at the practice’s main veterinary practice premises in an accessible form) is in Chapter 4 of the supporting guidance to the Code of Professional Conduct: Veterinary medicines. The professional requirement avoids the need for wider ranging registration of premises and cars from which medicines may be supplied; only veterinary practice premises from which medicines are supplied must be registered with the RCVS.

POM-Vs

This part of the guidance is currently under review. Please follow advice from the VMD on this issue until the review is complete. If you require any further information, please contact the Advice Team.

Prescription validity refers to the time in which the medicine must be dispensed, otherwise the prescription will no longer be valid.

A written prescription for a POM-V that is not a controlled drug is valid for 6 months (unless a shorter period is stated).

Where a written prescription includes a repeat, as long as the first dispense takes place during the validity period, the rest of the prescription may be dispensed outside of the validity period.

Controlled drugs

A written prescription for a schedule 2 or 3 controlled drug has a validity of 28 days (unless a shorter period is stated) and is not repeatable.

Where more than 30 days’ worth of CDs are prescribed and the client requests a prescription to be fulfilled elsewhere, unless there are exceptional circumstances that mean this is not appropriate, you should issue the client with an instalment prescription to be dispensed by a supplier of their choice in order to reduce the risk of misuse.

You should bear in mind that instalment prescriptions are not commonly used in this way in human medicine and, as such, pharmacists used to dealing with prescriptions from doctors may approach these with caution.

Please remember that instalment prescriptions are instructions to supply and must be followed to the letter. You should therefore ensure the client is fully aware of what you have stated. If you have said that a specific amount must be supplied on a specific date, then that’s what the dispenser must follow. When an instalment prescription is used, the client isn’t able to get it filled a day earlier or later for convenience, so you should consider this lack of flexibility before issuing one.

In line with RCVS guidance, veterinary surgeons may make reasonable charges for written prescriptions, but must not discriminate between those who are supplied with a prescription and those who are not, in relation to fees charged for other goods or services.

The maximum enrolment period is up to 10 years, subject to payment of an annual renewal fee. This time limit begins from the date that you passed your first module. You may take your synoptic exam outside this time limit.

Modules taken at the beginning of the programme will have to be taken again if the 10 year time limit is exceeded. To gain a Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice, you will need to achieve 60 credits in the appropriate modular combination within a 10-year time period.

If you wish to take more than one designation you do not need to repeat applicable modules already achieved unless they fall outside the 10 year time limit.

The training consists of around 20 hours of learning delivered online so it offers flexibility to vets taking part and we recommend that vets take around 3 months to complete it.

While we know that some people will be able to complete the online training quite quickly if circumstances allow, we also know that some people have additional commitments that mean training may take longer to complete.