Dr Darren Partridge

BSc (Hons) Anatomical Science BVSc Veterinary Science CBiol MBS MRCVS

Candidate 12 of 20

Proposers: Dr Alexandra Browning, Dr Alice McCartney

Contact details

Address Quillets Royal, Bell Road, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 0SS

T 0208 979 1384

M 07950 943 159

E [email protected]

W www.partridgepractices.co.uk

Candidate biography

I qualified from Bristol in 1993, where I was President of the Centaur Society. I have worked in front-line veterinary practice continuously for 31 years, as an employee, a locum, in a wildlife charity and for the last 18 years as a practice owner. I operate four practices employing 40-plus staff caring for companion animals, exotics and wildlife, including an OOH service serving 37 other practices. My veterinary interests include general surgery, endoscopy and exotic species. I have worked in shark research and participated in scientific expeditions to Mongolia and the Urals.

Previously an aerobatic pilot, motor racer, SCUBA diver, fell runner, fitness instructor and mountaineer, I am a Crossfitter and teach Shinrai karate, currently training towards my 3rd Dan. I am very interested in conservation issues, particularly concerning the health of British rivers. I write, direct, produce and act in radio plays for Upstage Surrey, using my own studio in the shed in my garden. I recently appeared on stage at Esher Theatre in ‘A Coy Mistress’, playing 17 different parts. I have personal experience of the mental health issues prevalent in the profession.

Candidate statement

Why do you want to stand to be a member of RCVS Council?

The veterinary profession is a mess. The stated mission of the RCVS – to enhance society through the promotion of the highest standards of veterinary care – is the mission of the overwhelming majority of veterinary surgeons. Only they can deliver the RCVS mission. And yet many of them feel disillusioned, demoralised and increasingly disenfranchised. The catastrophic levels of retention within the working profession; the scandalous extent of mental illness and self-harm; the inadequacies of veterinary education. External interests, uninvested in the noble aims of the College, have progressively degraded this profession. Too often, we roll over without resisting such erosive influences. Some issues have been created by decisions of the college itself.

My aim in joining Council is to contribute to an RCVS that better understands this profession: that more effectively gets to grips with these chronic problems and that robustly and reactively deals with external pressures that trend to damage its own stated aims. Only by having a healthy, resilient veterinary profession can the College ever hope to make its mission viable. I want to see more communication and transparency, and an RCVS that we can be proud of and that better engages its members and fights for the cause.

What do you think you can bring to RCVS Council?

A passionate belief in the veterinary profession as a profession: not an industry, and the stated aims of the RCVS.

An open-minded, creative, listening and intelligently vociferous approach to debate.

A highly energetic and pro-active method of engaging with projects and problems.

What relevant experience do you have?

A full-time practising veterinary surgeon with over thirty years’ highly relevant experience in the profession, and a comprehensive understanding of all that involves.

Is there anything else you would like to add in support of your candidacy?

Key points I want to address:

1. Commercial pressures degrading the RCVS mission. As a practice owner I understand the need for financial considerations, but for vets to be given financial targets and pressure to ‘up sell’ services is iniquitous. This is a college concern, not just for the CMA.
2. Mental health: At the current rate, soon there will be no-one staying in the practising profession. Vetlife and other initiatives are excellent but a more urgent review of the causes and solutions of this appalling problem is needed.
3. Public expectations: A campaign to highlight to the public that the epidemic of ‘vet-bashing’ radically degrades the service they want and deserve. This issue needs robust counter-measures: communication, education and raised awareness of the literally fatal consequences of this.
4. Education: A review of the methods of recruitment into the vet schools and the nature of the training as there are clearly shortfalls in preparedness of new graduates for the pressures of the real job.
5. I would propose that all lay and non-practising members of Council should have a minimum of one week’s experience in a front-line veterinary practice.