Week 20 and counting…

I attended a joint BVA / RCVS meeting on Monday afternoon to do some brain- storming for the Vetfutures initiative.  As a profession, where are we going to be in 2025?

The Project Manager, Sally Williams and colleague, Hannah Jordan provided a literature review, which highlighted six forces that are likely to shape the future for the veterinary profession:
1. Demographic Changes
a. Feminisation and the impact on part-time working – in the 2014 RCVS survey the number of vets working part-tine was 19% an increase from 11% in 2000.  Most striking is the proportion of men undertaking part-time work, which has more than doubled since 2010.
b. Women tend to gravitate to SA, equine and mixed practice, whereas men lean towards to farm and equine
c. Socio-economic background of veterinary students: 24% of vets responding to the 2014 RCVS survey had been privately educated.

2. Economic Forces
a. Supply & Demand – where the US leads the UK often follows.  An American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) survey indicates a surplus capacity of vets of between 11% and 14% between 2011 and 2025.  Pet ownership in the UK remains strong (46% of households have pets) but this is not necessarily an indicator of the number of vet visits with owners utilising the Internet for advice!
 
3. An increasingly Competitive Market
a. Increasing number of corporates versus private sector practices
b. Internet sales of drugs
c. Human pharmacies moving into the pet marketplace.

4. Client Behaviour
a. Convenience culture – clients are “increasingly digitally sophisticated” and “time constrained”.
b. Farmers increasingly want proactive vets who are “part of the team”.
c. An RCVS client survey indicates that veterinary services need to change from a model of what vets are prepared to offer, to one that is driven by the needs and wants of existing and potential clients.  The UK healthcare sector uses the end user as it’s starting point – it’s about “empowering patients”.

5. Food Supply and Global Imperatives
a. Issues such as climate change, bioterrorism, antimicrobial resistance, food supply & security and trans-boundary disease.
 
6. Mental Wellbeing
a. Research suggests that vets are no longer at greater risk of suicide compared with other professions.
b. An RCVS survey found that nearly 90% of vets found the job stressful but 80% reported job satisfaction.
c. 1 in 7 vets reaches burnout within the first 10 years post-graduation; 1 in 5 female vets meets the criteria for burnout with the first 5 years post-graduation.

Two days later I was back in London speaking at the AGM of the Royal College of Chiropractors where I spoke to it’s recently formed Animal Faculty on the very topical subject of the Vet / Therapist interface.  Obviously this was from an equine perspective and was an opportunity to share with them some of the outcomes of the recent survey we undertook for the RMPR project.  The return journey to Euston on a Boris bike coincided with a torrential downpour; it was going to happen one day!

On Thursday I attended a joint meeting of the Veterinary Policy Group (VPG) and Ethics and Welfare Group (EWG) of the BVA at Mansfield Street on the contentious issue of the “badger cull”.  I attended at the specific request of the BVA President, John Blackwell but I’m not sure that it’s right that we (BEVA) should have an official view; that’s surely the job of the specialist divisions.  If you’d like to voice your concerns about the cull, I’d encourage you to contact the BVA directly.

Following this I caught a late flight to Stockholm to attend the second Nordic Equine Veterinary Conference, arriving at 0100hrs.  Between Stockholm Arlanda Airport and the hotel, I managed to lose my mobile…..

Week 19 and counting……

I just spent a weekend on call, which I swapped with one of my partners, Mark Georgetti, whilst he went on SkiPD, organised by the Mayes’s and Henry Tremaine.  Regrettably, we haven’t been for a few years because it’s always during term time.  Although it’s probably not fair to blame it on the children this year…. I do have quite a lot on my plate already!

At the end of the week I participated on a discussion panel at the joint Veterinary Practice Management Association and Society of Practicing Veterinary Surgeons (VPMA / SPVS) Congress, which was held at the Celtic Manor, Newport.  It’s the second consecutive year that it’s been held there because of the sheer size of venue needed to accommodate delegate numbers.  It was also really convenient for me being only an hour away from home.

The Keynote speaker for the Congress was Monty Hall, http://www.montyhalls.co.uk/about-monty, who was captivating for the full hour or so.  As some of you may know he’s an ex-Royal Marine Officer, although by his own admission he’s never seen active service.  He gave a really entertaining and sometimes self-deprecating talk about constantly setting new challenges for yourself, getting out of your comfort zone and not letting age be a limiting factor; which is quite appropriate when you’re my age.  He described how he’d spent several weeks filming with Discovery channel for the programme, “Lost Worlds” where he’d had to climb (accompanied) a 1000 feet vertical face to film some wildlife and he’s petrified of heights; by my standards that’s definitely out of your comfort zone.

This year the Congress organisers had included an Equine Specific Business Stream, which attracted 50 – 60 delegates and generated lots of lively discussion.

Julian Samuelson of Bell Equine deftly chaired the panel discussion with my fellow contributors Chris Pearce and Wendy Furness, neither of whom needs any introduction.  The title of the panel was, “Equine Practice is Different…” which may be true but different to what; I have no experience of running any other type of practice… 

But it seems that a lot of concerns are common to all of us:

-          Feminisation, which is currently less pronounced in equine practice.  Statistics from the RCVS show that of the approximately 20,000 registered practicing veterinary surgeons, 57% are female and 43% are male.  The BSAVA shared their membership statistics with me, which are approximately 63% female to 37% male (the lions share of which are less than 45 years old – are the older ones retired already?!), which compares with the gender split of BEVA’s ordinary members which is 45% female to 55% male.

-          Increasing graduate numbers both UK and foreign; however, there were comments about the dearth of experienced (approximately 3 year qualified) vets in the marketplace.

-          Corporatisation – to date there are only a handful of corporate-run Equine Practices and it’s difficult to predict if this is going to change.

-          Succession – have you got a plan; is your practice affordable / saleable?

-          Work / Life balance - have we got it right?  Have your chance to join the debate “Does Equine Practice need to be more compatible with Family Life?” at BEVA Congress in September.

Talking of BEVA Congress, I am delighted with this year’s logo (see below), for which I was keen to have a racing theme and that image is iconic for the Grand National (Aintree) as the only start where you see the runners from behind.  The personal touch, which Joss has allowed me to include, is the colours of some of the horses which have been under the care of my practice, namely Mon Mome, Monbeg Dude, State of Play, Cappa Bleu and Alvarado all of which have run in the Grand National.  Those racing enthusiasts amongst you will recall that Mon Mome won in 2009 starting at odds of 100-1.

I’m most grateful to both Helen Sanderson (the outgoing VPMA chair) and Colin Thompson (the outgoing SPVS chair) for inviting me to participate in the VPMA / SPVS Congress.  It was also very kind of them to invite Luise and I to the banquet on the Friday evening, which was “black tie” with a hint of Scottish.  I assume that the reason for this was that it was just 2 days prior to Burns Night and also because of Colin’s ancestry; Colin didn’t disappoint with his word-perfect address to the haggis.