Week 12 and counting….

I had a late night on Sunday trying to submit my application to the RCVS for Advanced Practitioner Status, http://www.rcvs.org.uk/education/advanced-practitioner-status/, before the closing date of, err…Sunday night.  Nothing like a deadline to focus the mind – bit like exams really!  I struggled with the technology but just dipped in under the bar.  I believe I wasn’t the only one with the middle name, “Justin”: in the final week leading up to the deadline the number of applicants rose from about 250 to 700, (approximately 40% of which were equine) - good to hear I was in good company.

The rest of the week until Wednesday night was in the practice culminating in our annual dinner for our referring vets at The Corse Lawn Hotel http://corselawn.com/.  The evening ended sampling malt whisky at 2am with our houseguest, Henry Tremaine.  This was followed by a 7am departure to catch a flight to the 60^th AAEP Convention in Salt Lake City http://www.aaep.org/info/annual-convention-318.”I was buckin’ and squealin’” as Liam Kearns, one of my partners would say.  We dropped Henry back at the hotel to collect his car and wended our way to Heathrow, finding an “early starter” en route.

On our way to Salt Lake City we stopped off at Toronto to spend a couple of nights with Luise’s uncle, University Professor-Emeritus Geoffrey Sumner-Smith DVSc (Liv), MSc, BVSc FRCVS – that number of letters after a name was never going to be from my side of the family!  Geoff qualified from Liverpool in 1951 and after spending a few years in large animal practice in Malpas, Cheshire, followed by some Small Animal practice in Bristol, moved to Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph in 1967 for a 2 year post – and in his words, “…I’ve been here ever since”.  Geoff was one of the pioneers of internal fixation (AOVET) in small animals and has published widely on the subject of small animal orthopaedics.  Obviously we had to visit the OVC, where Luise also spent 12 months as an intern from 1987 to 1988.

Another early start on Saturday, which didn’t matter, jetlag had already kicked in, for our flight to Salt Lake City via Chicago.  I’m an early riser most days but 3am is even a shock to my system!

So, to the US to experience The Great American Dream….

Week 11 and counting…..

It’s probably been the quietest week so far from a travelling perspective, although that doesn’t stop the emails coming in thick and fast – (approximately 50 – 60 per day).  Only one trip to the “big-smoke” on Thursday afternoon for a meeting, the Equine Insurance Forum (EIF), with representatives from the insurance industry, including KBIS, NFU, SEIB, E&L etc..  The meeting was held on the 15^th floor at Catlin Insurance, situated in the heart of The City – what a vista - and the insurers are crying poverty: I wonder how many responses that comment will get?

The “insurers” had already had a meeting in the morning, which included one of their veterinary advisors, who was also present at our meeting, Paul Farrington MRCVS, who I haven’t seen for some time.  The seating arrangements did confer a feeling of us (David M, Huw Griffiths and me) at one end and them (including Paul F) at the other – whose side is Paul on I ask?

There were many issues raised, including the discussion points raised on EVG earlier in the year, which at the time came across as quite a “full-on” insurance bashing session.

Owners tend to compare horse insurance with their car insurance, which as the facts below indicate, is comparing apples with oranges.

Equine Insurance Key Facts:

-                          approximately 1 in 4/5 Vet Fee policy holders makes a claim per annum, which is far higher than any other policy type, e.g. car insurance is approximately 1 in 100….I bet I’m higher than that.

-                          The average claim is approximately £1750

-                          85 – 90% of Vet Fees is on diagnostics

-                          Car insurance doesn’t cover for mechanical repairs, which would I suppose is equivalent to a fracture repair or colic surgery.

With these facts in mind I think that Equine Insurance is good value for money and that we should promote it to owners as such. 

One of the valid discussion points raised on the forum was that the cost of insurance becomes prohibitively expensive once horse numbers exceed 2 or 3.  Inevitably in that situation, it is always the uninsured individual, which gallops through the fence or gets colic!  A possible solution to that scenario is for the owner to be strict about putting the insurance premium into a savings account for that rainy day and they can spend it on the, likely only one horse, which does have a problem.  After all, insurance policies are just another savings plan for that rainy day.  Good idea in theory but the reality is the Harrison’s (Luise) would just spend it!

Other issues included the reason why insurers don’t pay vets directly as BUPA or other insurers pay our medical fees directly to the provider.  It is related to the fact that the with vet’s fees the insurers indemnify the policyholder’s loss, i.e. costs for treatment, whereas with, for example BUPA, the insurer provides the “medical service”.  This automatically lead into the subject of the insurers expressing their desire to explore the option of using preferred providers, which would result in practices automatically being paid directly.  This is a subject which is very topical for TCEH at the moment; a client has very recently been paid by the insurance co. (over £2K for a nearly £3K bill) and the money, “has been swallowed up by my bank account”!.... I love my job.

The insurers did also ask us to remind our members that the £5000 vet fee cover on most policies is a limit not a target.