Week 9 and counting….

Probably one of my busiest but most diverse weeks so far, which followed on from a weekend on 1^st call.

The first meeting of the week was on Tuesday and was the BVA Veterinary Policy Group (VPG) held at their headquarters in Mansfield Street, London.  The VPG “advises BVA Council on animal health and welfare and public health issues” – current issues, which are discussed, may be species specific such as bovine TB or in the case of equine, the recent injuries survey that BEVA commissioned.  In addition, there are the wider issues raised, which affect all disciplines such as medicines legislation or disease surveillance.  A vital piece of information, which was highlighted related to the provision of OV (Official Veterinarian) services, such as the export of horses.  A new qualification, known as an Official Controls Qualification (Veterinarian) – or OCQ (V) is replacing the old OV qualification.  Improve International has been selected as the qualification provider.  Grandfather rights allowing transfer of existing OV panels to the equivalent OCQ (V) have been granted until 31^st March 2015.  Failure to make the deadline will mean you have to go back to “GO”!   The other deadline worth noting is 9^th January 2015, which will attract a discount on registration with Improve International, which unsurprisingly is required to acquire this new status!  Visit:  www.improve-ov.com to register before the deadline and take advantage of the grand father rights.

Time keeping has never been my forte and Wednesday was no exception.  I left home in what I thought was plenty of time at 0645hrs for a 0855hrs flight from Birmingham, normally less than an hour away.  However, the combination of heavy rain and rush-hour traffic resulted in me arriving at the airport at 0825hrs.  I still caught the plane – none of the other passengers realised that Airport Security was a contact sport.

I met up with Keith (Chandler) to attend a meeting at The Institute of Health & Well-Being with Tim Parkin, Professor Ewan MacDonald and Judith Brown.  We discussed the results of the Injuries Survey (http://www.beva.org.uk/news-and-events/news/view/641) and formulated a plan of how to use the survey outcomes most effectively and discuss further surveys going forward to determine if any changes that we implement will have a positive effect.  I then caught a flight that afternoon to London City Airport for a joint officers meeting with the BSAVA. 

After an overnight stay just off Hyde Park, I attended the World Horse Welfare annual conference held at the Royal Geographical Society on Thursday, where the theme was “What is The Value of Horses”.  http://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/conference - I urge you try and find time to view it but particularly to view Lance Corporal Jason Hare RM who is on from about 2hrs 20min to 2hrs 40min and see if you’re not moved to at least a lump in your throat or a tear in your eye.  Then back home to be on 1st call for Thursday night.

On Friday I returned to Glasgow, again via Birmingham.  On this occasion I left in plenty of time and arrived at the airport before check-in had even opened – which I must confess has to be a first for me.  The trip was to attend the FEEVA (Federation of European Equine Veterinary Associations) PPE symposium, a 2-day meeting, which had been organised by Malcolm Morley and Ben Mayes.  In attendance were representatives from the UK & Ireland, Germany, Austria, Latvia, Finland, Spain, Italy, Holland and Sweden.  Malcolm has chaired a working group to review the PPE procedure and certificate in the UK and Ireland over the last 2 -3 years.  The purpose of this meeting was to determine the differences in the procedure in each member state, to articulate these differences to our members and just as importantly to our clients who may on occasion avail themselves of the services of a veterinary surgeon in one of these member states.

 

The venue for the meeting, of approximately 20 delegates, was at the main headquarters of BCF Technologies (http://www.uk-ireland.bcftechnology.com/) at Bellshill, just outside of Glasgow, which the company re-located to approximately 12 months ago.  Gavin Mitchell, one of the co-owner’s gave us a guided tour around the premises on Saturday morning - we were like “Kids in a Candy Store”.

BCF also very kindly paid for dinner in a Central Glasgow restaurant on Friday night – their generosity for this meeting was overwhelming and I would like to publicly express my heartfelt gratitude.

A return flight to Birmingham late Saturday afternoon and on the way home I collected Tom, my son from school after he’d competed at Henley Sculls.  I was gutted that I hadn’t been there to holler from the riverbank – he wasn’t!