Under Care Review: Council approves implementation and review for new guidance

At its meeting on Thursday 16 March 2023, RCVS Council, our governing body, approved the implementation and review dates for its new guidance on prescribing prescription-only veterinary medicines (POM-Vs) to an animal that is ‘under care’ of a veterinary surgeon, as well as some final amendments to the guidance itself.

In terms of the implementation, a majority of RCVS Council members voted for the guidance to come into force from 1 September 2023. Council members also voted unanimously for a review of the guidance to be conducted 12 months from the implementation date, with the caveat that the Standards Committee would continue to monitor any impacts on an ongoing basis.

Prior to approving the implementation and review timetable, Council also agreed some final changes to the guidance that had been approved at the January 2023 meeting. These included changing the guidance to say that veterinary surgeons ‘must’ (rather than the previous ‘should’) have the 24/7 facility to physically examine the animal or visit the premises in the case of equine, production or farmed aquatic animals and game, as well as changes around the guidance specifically relating to limited service providers and information and advice services. The full details of the amendments can be found in the papers for the March 2023 RCVS Council meeting.

During the course of the meeting, RCVS Council members also discussed some draft case study scenarios that had been developed by our Standards & Advice Team and the Standards Committee to assist the veterinary professions in understanding the under care guidance prior to its implementation. These will be finalised and published in due course, along with a series of FAQs.

Linda Belton MRCVS (pictured), Chair of the RCVS Standards Committee, said: “I would like to thank all the organisations and individuals within the professions who helped provide the crucial content and context for the case study scenarios, as well as feedback to make sure they were realistic and applicable in practice. Thank you also to all those who have fed into the further improvements that have been made to the guidance and I would like to reassure those with concerns that the guidance is robust, we have considered how it will be enforced and we will continue to review the guidance.”

Eleanor Ferguson, RCVS Registrar, added: “Thank you to the RCVS staff and Council members – particularly those on the Standards Committee – for all the hard work they have put into getting the guidance to this stage, ensuring that the appropriate animal welfare safeguards are in place and that the guidance is as clear as possible for members of the professions.

“Ahead of it coming into force, we will also be publishing resources about the guidance, including the case studies that we are currently finalising, and some FAQs. We hope these will help to further explain the context behind the guidance changes, and help to counter any misunderstanding about the impact of the guidance and what it will actually mean for practising professionals on a day-to-day basis.”

For further information about the guidance and the consultation process that led to its development the dedicated under care webpage.