24/7 cover Standards Committee meeting concludes

An extended Standards Committee meeting on the provision of 24-hour emergency veterinary care has now finished and we would like to thank all those who attended and discussed the issue in more detail.

The meeting took place from Wednesday 26 to Friday 28 March 2014 and followed a ‘call for evidence’ launched last December which elicited more than 300 written responses from members of the professions, the public and representative organisations for both veterinary professionals and animal owners.

The aim of the call for evidence was so that the Standards Committee could understand how best we could meet the expectations of all those involved in the provision of 24-hour emergency care, including animal owners.

Representatives from a number of those organisations who submitted written evidence – as well as individual veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and members of the public – attended the meeting where they were questioned by the Standards Committee on their submissions and views about the provision of emergency care.

Clare Tapsfield-Wright, Chairman of the Standards Committee, commented: “On behalf of the Committee I would like to thank all those who responded to our original call for evidence and all those key stakeholders who attended this three-day meeting to discuss, in more detail, the provision of 24-hour emergency care.

"We will now consider the written answers to our original call for evidence and the evidence heard this week, together with data gathered via surveys with the profession and the public, with a view to making recommendations to RCVS Council in June.”

More details about the background behind our call for evidence on the provision of 24-hour veterinary care.