Week 1 and counting…

What a great Congress in Birmingham and a huge thank you to the organising committee, the student stewards and most importantly the BEVA office for their tireless work.

This week included a meeting at the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) headquarters in London.  A train to Euston followed by my first short ride on a “Boris Bike” into and out of central London - which may lose its appeal in driving rain as the year progresses!  This was an “extraordinary” meeting of the BHA Veterinary Committee (VC) to discuss their recently announced Policy on Anabolic Steroids, which is due to come into force on the 1^st January 2015 (http://www.britishhorseracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Anabolic-Steroids-Policy-June-2014.pdf).  All stakeholders were given the opportunity to have a “full & frank” discussion and air their concerns.

Then the following day, a meeting in Bristol with a group of veterinary physiotherapists to discuss educational standards.  This is part of BEVA’s long-term goal to establish a recognised group of Musculoskeletal Paraprofessionals (MP) who you can recommend to your clients with complete confidence in their professional standards of practice – but don’t hold your breath!  The intention is to include all interested disciplines of MP’s, which meet the yet to be determined appropriate professional standards.  This is work in progress, which will extend well beyond my tenure.

The week also included 3 nights on call and a partners meeting into the wee small hours.

“A week is a long time in politics”, or at least my first proper one has been; but probably not as long as Alex Salmond’s!  On that note, the result of the referendum means that we won’t have to consider re-naming BEVA & Keith C won’t need to launch SEVA.