2024: Your year in Code and supporting guidance changes

As many of you may know, the Code of Professional Conduct and supporting guidance is constantly evolving to ensure the guidance we give is up-to-date and reflective of the latest good practice. Much of the work of the Standards & Advice Team is concerned with helping veterinary professionals interpret the Code and guidance in the context of their everyday work and their own clinical judgement.

Likewise, our Standards Committee, chaired by RCVS President Linda Belton (pictured), meets several times a year with a wide-ranging remit to consider potential additions or amendments to the Code and supporting guidance based on, for example, external legal and regulatory changes and representations from organisations and individual members of the professions.

While, throughout the course of year, we produce a number of advice and guidance updates that we publish on the website and include in our monthly newsletter, we wanted to bring all the various changes made throughout the course of the 2024 together and publish them in summary form. We do hope you find this overview useful.

Specialists

In February 2024 we made changes to the supporting guidance to the Code regarding veterinary surgeons who are not on the RCVS List of Specialists, but who reference qualifications obtained outside the UK that contain the word ‘specialist’.

A new paragraph (23.32) was added to Chapter 23 (‘Protection of title, advertising and endorsement’) of the supporting guidance to state that, exceptionally, when referencing these qualifications veterinary surgeons must make clear they are not an RCVS-recognised specialist. This clarification should be prominent and immediately follow the reference to the qualification.

In making the change, the Standards Committee felt the RCVS could not prevent those holding legitimately earned overseas qualifications from referencing them, but that reference to such qualifications should not impact the integrity of the RCVS List of Specialists, or mislead members of the public and the professions.

Use of professional status and qualifications

In August the Standards Committee agreed further changes to Chapter 23 (‘Protection of title, advertising and endorsement’) in relation to the use of the term ‘specialist’ in the name of veterinary practices. In addition changes were made on how to describe experience or seniority in titles, for example, encouraging the use of recognised titles and statuses such as RCVS Specialist and RCVS Advanced Practitioner, rather than using generic terms such as ‘consultant’ or ‘referral surgeon’. Furthermore, changes were agreed for supporting guidance Chapter 1 (‘Referrals and second opinions’) regarding what information needs to be provided when making referral recommendations to clients.

The overall aim of the changes is to provide more clarity to clients on the level of expertise of veterinary surgeons who accept referrals. The changes also maintain the integrity of the RCVS Specialist list, and help to avoid confusion potential confusion over the use of generic terms such as ‘consultant’ or ‘referral surgeon’, which are familiar to the public in the human healthcare, but have no defined meaning in the veterinary sector.

Compulsory microchipping of cats

From 10 June 2024, the Microchipping of Cats and Dogs (England) Regulations 2023 required that keepers of cats older than 20 weeks in England had the animals microchipped. Previously it was only a legal requirement to have dogs microchipped.

In April 2024, ahead of the new regulations coming into force, we adapted our existing supporting guidance on compulsory microchipping – Chapter 29 (‘Small animals and microchips’) and Chapter 8 (‘Euthanasia of animals’) to cover cats.

Our Standards Committee also agreed to add cats to the guidance around scanning for a microchip where a healthy cat is presented for euthanasia and there are no other welfare concerns (paragraphs 29.30-29.33 and 8.9). This guidance already exists for dogs, having been introduced in 2021 following consultation with Defra.

24-hour first aid and pain relief

In May we updated Chapter 3 (’24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief’) to clarify the definition of a ‘limited service provider’ (paragraph 3.49). The guidance now specifically states that a practice that offers one service to a selection of clients but more than one to others is not a limited service provider, as the practice offers more than one service overall.

Consumer rights and freedom of choice

In September, we consolidated various bits of content regarding consumer rights and freedom of choice from around 30 chapters of the supporting guidance into just one – Chapter 10 (‘Consumer rights and freedom of choice’). This includes specific guidance on how the principles of consumer rights and freedom of choice apply to veterinary medicines, fees, referrals and incentives, advertising and recommendations, and informed consent.

Furthermore, in October we added new guidance to Chapter 17 (‘Veterinary teams and leaders’) setting out that the appointed senior veterinary surgeon in a practice or business should also ‘have overall responsibility within the organisation for ensuring that the RCVS supporting guidance and legislation relating to consumer obligations, such as consumer choice, are being adhered to’ (paragraph 17.15(e)).

Contextualised care and professional judgement

In October the Standards Committee agreed to provide more information on contextualised care and exercising professional judgement within the supporting guidance at Chapter 2 (‘Veterinary care’). This guidance aims to clarify the position on contextualised care and address situations where veterinary surgeons may feel under pressure to treat animals in a particular way under their practice policy.

A further amendment was also made to Chapter 17 (‘Veterinary teams and leaders’) on this matter, stating that the appointed senior veterinary surgeon should ‘have overall responsibility within the organisation for ensuring that the clinical freedom and professional autonomy of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses is not impeded or eroded by external factors, such as the commercial interests of the practice’ (paragraph 17.15(f)).

Advertising and practice/ company names

In October we amended Chapter 23 (‘Protection of title, advertising and endorsement’) of the supporting guidance to include guidance/expectations relating to protection of title (the use of the word ‘vet’/’veterinary’ in a company name) and the advertising of practice names more broadly. The chapter was also restructured and the title changed. Additionally, the chapter now signposts and links to FAQs relating to the advertising of practice names.

Euthanasia

In December we updated Chapter 8 (‘Euthanasia of animals’) of the supporting guidance to:

• Clarify the guidance around when vets are required to check for microchips prior to euthanasia;
• Rearrange the guidance under appropriate headings to make it easier to understand and follow;
• Update the language to make it more accessible and in line with what the Standards and Advice Team would advise;
• Reference considerations to be made prior to euthanasia and further sources of advice; and
• Remove guidance regarding ‘licensed premises’, ‘sporting events’ and ‘destruction of injured horses’.

Other guidance published in 2024

• Joint RCVS and Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) guidance on prescribing POM-Vs published.
• Guidance on the euthanasia of wildlife using controlled drugs published.
• Updated our guidance on XL bullies.
• Worked with RCVS Knowledge to publish discussion guides to support the provision contextualised care in practice.
• Guidance to help the professions navigate amendments to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations made by the VMD in May 2024.
• New FAQ surrounding mutual clients in the farm sector agreed by the Standards Committee following discussions with individual veterinary surgeons working in the farm sector and the British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA).

We hope you find this brief overview of the major guidance changes throughout the course of 2024 useful and interesting. If you have any questions about any of the changes above – or general inquiries about the Code of Professional Conduct and its support guidance, please contact the Standards and Advice Team on [email protected], Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.