Week 18 and counting.....

On Tuesday David Mountford (CEO) and I went to DEFRA and met up with Richard Drummond and Siobhan Taylor to discuss the results of the Review of the Minor Procedures Regime (RMPR) project surveys mentioned in last week’s blog. BEVA have undertaken 2 separate surveys as part of the evidence gathering for the review, one on the subject of Musculoskeletal Therapies, including small animals (Survey 1) and the other one about Equine Dental Care (Survey 2).  Survey 1 was targeted at musculoskeletal therapy associations (12 responses), individual musculoskeletal therapists (623 responses) and horse owners (5,796 responses).  Survey 2 was targeted at the equine dental associations (1 response), individual equine dental care providers (378 responses) and horse owners (5,796 responses).

Both surveys make for interesting reading:

Survey 1

-          25% of horse-owners would not contact a vet if they thought that their horse had a musculoskeletal problem, nearly 50% might contact a physiotherapist and just over 40% might contact a chiropractor.

-          Some therapists report vets being unwilling to engage/liaise

-          Better regulation is desired

-          Minimum educational standards of a Degree or Masters are supported by the majority of therapists

-          Current regulations are considered to be impractical and ill-defined and there is poor enforcement

-          There are currently no minimum standards / qualifications for therapists

-          Therapists consider that there is veterinary indifference and ignorance.

-          Estimated number of therapists offering musculoskeletal therapy to horses in the UK – 1120.

         Survey 2

        

-          Vets are often not the owner’s first choice for equine dental care

-          Word of mouth/reputation is the primary differentiator used by owners

-          Qualifications are important to owners but are not checked

-          Association membership is important to owners but is not checked

-          The majority of qualified EDTs comply with “accepted practice”.

-          BAEDT members appear to be slightly more compliant than others

-          ¾ of unqualified EDTs do not comply with “accepted practice” or the VSA

What a fantastic piece in last week’s edition of In Practice under “A Practitioner Ponders”.  It mentions the outcome of the Injury Survey we commissioned in 2013 and discussed the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  Key facts worth consideration are that according to the Kentucky Trauma Registry, “50% of horse-related fatalities of riders were from incidents on the ground,” and that the wearing of a safety helmet, “confers an 80% increase in the chance of survival in the event of a head injury”.  I would urge you to find a copy of the journal to read this article (In Practice: January 2015, Volume 37:1), http://inpractice.bmj.com/content/37/1/48.full.pdf+html

Week 17 and counting…..

Yes, I know the last blog was my 14^th but I did have 2 weeks off from BEVA things over the Xmas and New Year period and therefore no blog was forthcoming!  2 weeks off, except of course for the continuous influx into my Inbox; although it was reduced to about 30 a day.  But sadly not 2 weeks off from the practice and the Xmas & New Year Rota, which included the first Point-to-Point fixture in the area for the 2014/2015 season.

New Year and new resolutions: to answer emails by return and not just let them sit in my Inbox, whilst I ponder them; to only read texts, when I’m in a position to respond to them rather than read them whilst I’m driving with the intention of responding when I’m stationary and then I invariably forget.

The first edition of the year of the Horse and Hound included an article on the hopes of a number of vets, including myself.  I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more fallout from my concerns about some rider’s weight compromising their horse’s welfare.

It was straight back into it at the start of the week with a trip down to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) headquarters in London on Tuesday for a meeting of the Veterinary Committee.  The implementation of their Anabolic Steroid Policy has been delayed until March 2015 because of the difficulty in defining who is deemed to be the “responsible person” either prior to a horse entering training or during those periods of time when the horse is “out of training”.  No further information was available at the time of the meeting but it is hoped that these loose ends will be tied up by February after further consultation with the National Trainers Federation (NTF) and the Racehorse Owners Association (ROA) …watch this space.

I tabled a paper about equine dental procedures being performed on BHA licensed premises.  This is part of our ongoing campaign to inform all horse owners / trainers / carers about the legislation surrounding “the horse’s mouth”.  One of the things, which has become apparent to us over the last few months both from the BEVA e-Survey of our members and the survey, which we undertook for the Review of the Minor Procedures Regime (RMPR) board on Equine Dental Care is the surprising amount of ignorance about and understanding of the subject.  The RMPR survey included dental care providers, including vets, and horse-owners.

BEVA has been trying to promote the regulation of “horse dentists and dentistry” for years in order to protect animal welfare.  Achieving this goal is currently being hampered by the fact that anything other than Category 1 dental procedures are considered to be acts of veterinary surgery.  However, we are still condoning / supporting the practice of Category 2 procedures by “suitably qualified” non-vets.  This is an anomaly and until there is an exemption order in place, which we are working on with DEFRA, it will remain theoretically illegal for non-vets, suitably qualified or not, to perform Category 2 procedures.  However, in the meantime, I think that we should recommend that only “suitably qualified” dental technicians should be performing any (Category 1 or Category 2) procedure in a horse’s mouth.  I think we’ve all seen the results of the damage that a non-qualified individual can do using a set of rasps, albeit legally - whose idea was it for unqualified people to be allowed to rasp sharp enamel points anyway? 

At the meeting I requested that the BHA take a lead on this and recommend that only suitably qualified EDT’s or vets be undertaking any form of equine dentistry on BHA licensed premises.  Obviously it will be difficult to implement this with immediate effect but I suggested that those individuals working on BHA premises who are not qualified are allowed a period of maybe a couple of years to gain suitable qualifications in order to retain the work.

I have a meeting with DEFRA next week to discuss the RMPR survey where I hope we can progress the subject of equine dentistry further.

Week 14 and counting……

Fortunately the weekend on call, although reasonably busy, didn’t result in me losing too much sleep and so I was able to shake off the jetlag quite promptly.

The main BEVA item this week was the Council Review Meeting, http://www.beva.org.uk/aboutus/MeetTeam/Council, which was held at Trinity Hall in Cambridge.  As a Liverpool graduate I am unfamiliar with the City of Cambridge and its collegiate system.  My only visit to Cambridge as an undergraduate was on a rugby tour and all that I can recall is the pub, the kebab house, the rugby pitches and the fact that we won…. which was a surprise as the players who appeared on the pitch on the Saturday afternoon were definitely not the ones we were drinking with the previous night; I think we’d been entertained on the Friday evening by the 1^st XV “drinking team”.

However, what a remarkable scholastic city, steeped in history and tradition.  Although not all Council members shared my enthusiasm – “There’s nothing makes me want to vote socialist more than f…..g Cambridge,…” exclaimed in the best Lancastrian accent – guess who?

We welcomed 4 new members onto Council at the meeting, namely Gayle Hallowell, Ben Sturgeon, Hannah Yeates and Jon Pycock, who’s doing his second stint on Council – his first one being about 10 years ago.  It was really encouraging in advance of Congress in September that we had sufficient people who applied to join Council that an election was required – did they all think, “If Harrison can do it then anybody can”.  For those of you who weren’t successful this time or others of you considering Council, I strongly encourage you to apply next year – you really will get a lot out of it.  I urge more practitioners to apply, particularly female ones - after all that’s the vast majority of members, which the Association represents.  If you think Council’s full of “old, male, tweedy farts” (see Blog 7), put your money where your mouth is:

http://www.beva.org.uk/aboutus/MeetTeam/Council/JoiningCouncil

Topics discussed included:

The Association’s Operational and Financial Reports

-          The total membership stands at 2678, only a fraction up on last year.

-          Membership subscriptions can now be paid by monthly direct debit.

-          There is a NEW concessionary rate for those earning < £15K or on parental leave or studying full time for a full time veterinary related qualification.

-          The Scientific Programme for the 2015 Congress is almost completed.

-          The BEVA Database and Website are being re-built

-          The BEVA offices at Fordham are undergoing some renovation works in 2015.

The Role of The BVA

-          The BVA have asked for feedback from the divisions on its structure and governance.

Do we want to be Doctors!

-          I’d rather “vet” something than “doctor” it!

Following the meeting, we had our Christmas dinner, again at Trinity Hall, which included all Council Members and partners and the BEVA Office Staff and all had a late, great night.

The following day I attended the Winter Clinical Workshop at Duxford Airspace, Cambridgeshire, http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford, what an inspired choice of venue.   The meeting covered predominantly “Regenerative Medicine” and its use in orthopaedics – New Treatments for Lame Horses – Do They Work?  It was a really informative day and was fully subscribed with over 75 attendees.

Over Xmas – the BEVA offices closed down although I’m lead to believe that DM is “beavering” away behind the scenes! 

However, no such luxuries at TCEH – although this year Luise and I are both off over Xmas as we both worked Xmas Day and Boxing Day last year.  We were both out till early evening on Christmas day and the kids were Home Alone.  They said it was the best Christmas they’d ever had – they watched the television all day.

Compliments of the season to you all and I’ll catch up in the New Year.

AH

Week 13 and counting……

A quarter of the way through my year already – “Is that all?” I hear David Mountford cry.

Our trip to Toronto airport did involve a stint on the wrong side of the road as I left a “gas station”, which did cause much anxiety for the other driver and my passenger.  So onto Salt Lake City (SLC) via Chicago for the 60^th AAEP Convention – “Howdy!”.  I thought that I wasn’t very well travelled but approximately 70% of Americans don’t have a passport.  But why would you need to in just a huge and diverse country?

Our hosts could not have made us feel more welcome.  On the Saturday night we were entertained at the President’s reception and met up with the outgoing AAEP President, Jeff Blea DVM and his wife, Annie also DVM.  His is an interesting career; his career as a flat jockey of a few years was curtailed after he was involved in a serious riding accident where he was “slammed” into the running rail, which left him with a totally paralysed left arm.  After this he re-trained as a vet and is a now a practitioner who does racetrack work - with effectively only one arm.  I am truly in awe of people like Jeff who conquer serious disabilities to succeed – respect.

The weather was unseasonably warm with clear blue skies and temperatures above freezing.  The Convention format is very similar to BEVA Congress with an opening ceremony and plenary lecture, which most delegates attend, followed by multiple streams running concurrently, but as you would imagine it was a lot bigger.  Also I’ve never seen so many Stetsons or cowboy boots in one lecture theatre.

The plenary lecture was delivered by Marvin Beeman DVM, an 82 year old practitioner who still works a 4½ day week in the mid-west and hunts twice a week during the season.  He gave a very thought provoking and inspiring insight into his work ethic both as a professional and a businessman.  He invited us to join him and his family at the Convention dinner on the Tuesday night - what an inspiration and he fully deserves to be wearing the crown!

There were a handful of UK delegates including Nenad Zilic , from Barn Equine, Sue Dyson, Lynn Hillyer, Tim Mair representing Equine Veterinary Education (EVE), Roger Smith, Chris House & Jane Jackson, Rob van Pelt and our very own David Mountford.  Even Gavin from BCF made an appearance in the trade-stand area (which as previously mentioned was a lot bigger) and managed to lure me into buying one of their new DR systems – it’s ok the deal wasn’t clinched in the bar and my partners do know.

There were several opportunities to collaborate with the AAEP – for example, there was an evening meeting of their Internship Awareness Program (sic).  This involved approximately 60 equine clinics, usually called hospitals, advertising their wares in an informal setting to undergraduates and recent graduates.  Their programme is far more advanced than BEVA’s Internship Awareness Proogramme but gave us some good ideas as how to progress ours.  David and I also had an informal meeting with a company who are keen for BEVA to collaborate in an Equine Veterinary Conference in China in the latter part of 2015.

 

SLC is another 2 hours behind Toronto causing even more disruption to my sleep patterns.  Every morning I was wide-awake at 3 am regardless of the time I went to bed.  Understandably, I vacated the room and was in the “lobby” by 3.15am doing emails etc..  It’s not unusual for me to be in the hotel reception at 3.15 am at BEVA Congress but not usually doing emails!  The return journey coincided with my body clock having finally adapted to the SLC time zone.  It was an overnight flight arriving in Heathrow at 11am and then straight back to work and into a weekend on call….