The RCVS Council has agreed to temporarily suspend its requirements for UK veterinary students and veterinary degree programmes around extra-mural studies (EMS).

Normally, students would be required to complete a minimum of 38 weeks of EMS throughout their degree programme in order to gain real-life work experience to enhance their university-based studies.

Under the circumstances, however, Council has decided to allow a temporary flexibility around completion of EMS:

• It is no longer compulsory for students to complete EMS over the next eight-week period, after which the situation will be reviewed. This applies to students in any year of their studies.
• For students in their final year of study, any shortfall of up to four weeks’ duration in EMS relative to the requirements should not be a barrier to completion of the programme.
• For students in years one to four of their studies, it is expected that there will be sufficient time for them to make up the full 38 weeks of EMS required to complete their degree programme. However, this will be reviewed as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses.

RCVS President Niall Connell said: “Extra-Mural Studies (EMS) are an important and valued part of the veterinary programme, and all students are required to complete a total of 38 weeks across the full programme.

“However, the health and safety of students and staff are paramount, and we are aware that a number of restrictions are being put in place at this time to ensure their safety and minimise the risk of Covid-19 transmission.”

These measures will be subject to further review/extension depending upon the prevailing situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. The RCVS will monitor the impact of this through EMS completion data provided by UK veterinary schools.

Regarding final exams and assessment, the College says it may be necessary for UK veterinary schools to consider alternative methods to assess students in certain areas, but that UK veterinary schools should continue to ensure that any alternative assessment methods continue to be robust, valid and reliable, and ensure students have met the RCVS Day One Competences.

The RCVS has suspended all Practice Standards Scheme assessments until 1st May 2020. 

Pam Mosedale, Lead Practice Standards Scheme Assessor, said: “We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but based on the UK Government’s advice and our duty of care to our team of Assessors, as well as team members and clients at veterinary practices, our only option was to postpone and reschedule all visits in the short-term.

"Although we have cancelled all assessments until the end of April, we will be constantly monitoring the situation over the coming weeks, and it is likely that there may be some further postponement of assessments planned for May and beyond."

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate, which carries out assessment inspections of veterinary premises that are not within the ambit of the Practice Standards Scheme, has also confirmed that it has postponed its forthcoming inspections. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-vmd-remains-open-for-business. 

The RCVS Practice Standards Team can be contacted on pss@rcvs.org.uk or 020 7202 0767 for further advice.

The RCVS has announced that all its staff are now working from home and that Belgravia House has now closed indefinitely.   

The College says it will, however, continue to operate as close to normality as possible, with the main support services for veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses such as advice, lifelong learning (including qualifications and the new 1CPD platform), finance and Practice Standards available as usual over the phone, on email or via the website.

The College’s main statutory activities around accreditation, registration and regulation of the professions will also be largely unaffected, with most Committee, Sub-Committee and working group meetings held by telephone or video conference.

Apparently, however, the April meeting of RCVS Council was going to be too big to be held remotely, so it has been cancelled.

The things that were up for discussion, such as the standard of proof and the report of the Legislation Working Party, will be moved to a subsequent meeting. Should there be any urgent business to consider, Council members have been asked to remain available via email on the date originally scheduled.

The College says it will be deciding whether to proceed with forthcoming DC hearings on a case-by-case basis, to balance maintaining the health and welfare of all involved with the College’s responsibility to protect animal health and welfare and public health.

The College is having to postpone or cancel an increasing number of its events; latest updates and advice for the profession is at: www.rcvs.org.uk/coronavirus.

RCVS Chief Executive Lizzie Lockett, pictured right, said: "We have been planning for this eventuality for some time, so whilst Monday’s announcement from UK Government came a little sooner than expected, we are in a strong position to be able to operate as close to normal as possible.

"We have an excellent and highly committed team of staff and Council members at the College, who I know will continue to work hard from kitchen tables, studies and living rooms over the coming days and weeks to serve the veterinary professions and the animal-owning public.

"Whilst we are fortunate that much of our work can be carried out remotely, we fully appreciate that this is not the case for most veterinary professionals who themselves are currently facing many significant challenges in their daily work to care for the nation’s animals whilst also prioritising the health and welfare of their own teams."

The College is urging all veterinary surgeons, nurses and practices to check they have supplied it with their most up-to-date email address via www.rcvs.org.uk/myaccount so it can relay its latest advice as the situation evolves.

The RCVS and the BVA have issued a joint statement to help the veterinary profession interpret the guidance released by Government on 19 March about who qualifies as ‘key workers’ in relation to the closure of schools.

The relevant section of the Government advice states: "This [key worker status] includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)."

The RCVS/BVA statement, which is intended to help veterinary surgeons decide whether or not they can claim ‘key worker’ status and ask for their children to continue to be taken into schools, reminds veterinary surgeons to consider the wider societal picture and ensure that they only claim ‘key worker’ status if absolutely necessary.

The statement also stresses that the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct responsibility of the veterinary surgeon to take steps to provide 24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief to animals according to their skills and the specific situation continues, and veterinary practices will need to continue to carry out this work. It is important that animal owners are able to focus on their own health, and not need to worry about their pets. Both the RCVS and BVA believe that veterinary surgeons who are providing this essential work can be considered key workers.

The statement in full is as follows:

Veterinary surgeons as key workers in relation to school closures

RCVS and BVA appreciate that veterinary surgeons will feel a great deal of uncertainty at the present time, and that many will be facing considerable difficulties due to the closure of schools for most pupils.

The official government advice can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision.

The guidance emphasises that if children can be at home then they should be, in order to help to prevent the virus from spreading.

The government has granted key worker status by sector rather than profession. Some veterinary work will definitely fall into the ‘key worker’ category. RCVS and BVA are therefore providing some additional advice below, following consultation with the UK Chief Veterinary Officer:

• Vets carrying out work linked to food production
  Veterinary surgeons working in food production from ‘farm to fork’ are considered to be key workers. This includes:
  1. Farm vets
  2. Official Veterinarians working in the food chain, including abattoir and other related inspection and certification work
• Vets working in emergency care
  The responsibility of the veterinary surgeon to take steps to provide 24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief to animals according to their skills and the specific situation continues, and veterinary practices will need to continue to carry out this work. It is important that animal owners are able to focus on their own health, and not need to worry about their pets. Veterinary surgeons who are providing this essential work can be considered key workers.
• Other companion animal practice work
  In light of the Government guidance published on 19 March it is not clear that veterinary surgeons working in companion animal practice can be considered key workers. Veterinary surgeons should consider the possibility of reputational damage to the profession if vets doing work which could be regarded as non-essential claim key worker status at this time, given that we are facing a public health emergency. Anyone doing so must be confident that their claim to key worker status is defensible. Practices may need to rationalise their work and ultimately this must be a decision for individual veterinary surgeons and veterinary practices.

Summary
At this time the provision of public health and the maintenance of food production need to take priority, and veterinary surgeons working in these areas should be considered key workers.

Veterinary surgeons working in emergency care can also be considered key workers. This will not apply to every veterinary surgeon in clinical practice, and practices may need to consider rationalising their services to achieve this.

The guidance has been welcomed by both the BSAVA and BEVA. David Mountford, Chief Executive of BEVA said: "As veterinary professionals we are duty-bound to provide essential care, relieve suffering and protect the health of the public. Recognition as key workers in such circumstances is welcomed but we would encourage vets to only add to the burden faced by schools where animal welfare is at risk and all other avenues have been explored."

The Animal Health Trust, the veterinary research charity which employs 257 staff at its centre near Newmarket, has announced that without an injection of funds, it will be forced to close at the end of the month. 

The charity says that it had already been suffering a period of 'dire financial constraints' and the economic effects of coronavirus are now having a direct effect on funding. 

The charity's Trustees and Executive Committee is still trying to find emergency funding to try and save the organisation, failing which it will close on the 31st March.

The BVA and the RCVS have issued a statement which clarifies what work veterinary surgeons and practices are allowed to do under the coronavirus lockdown. 

On 23rd March, the Government demanded that the majority of public-facing businesses close their doors. Veterinary surgeries, however, have been exempted and are allowed to remain open.

However, the number of clients seen face-to-face should be kept to an absolute minimum and veterinary teams must insist on strict social distancing measures at all times.

In addition, the RCVS/BVA say that: 

• Routine treatments should not be carried out until further notice.
• You may offer your clients advice and consultation services via remote means, including prescribing POM-V medicines where appropriate.
• Clients and/or veterinary professionals should only travel to see animals if judged essential to do so.
• Animals should only be seen in emergencies or where, in the judgement of the veterinary surgeon, urgent assessment and/or treatment is needed in order to reduce the risk of patient deterioration to the point where it may become an emergency in the near future (ie within the three-week time frame currently laid out by the Government for these measures).
• Veterinary professionals should exercise judgement as to when it is necessary for you to see an animal and/or their owner in person.
   has updated its FAQs for veterinary professionals, which can be found here:  

The College has updated its FAQs for veterinary professionals, which can be found here: https://www.rcvs.org.uk/setting-standards/advice-and-guidance/coronavirus-covid-19/ 

The BVA is now developing some further guidance to provide examples of what constitutes routine, urgent and emergency care. 

The BEVA has announced that from today, it is dropping membership renewal charges for all veterinary surgeons for the next three months to help support you during the COVID-19 crisis.

All existing BEVA members will have their membership automatically extended until 30 June 2020. The association is also inviting vets and vet nurses who are not already BEVA members to join as online members free of charge until 30 June 2020.

BEVA President Tim Mair said: “In this extraordinary time of global crisis our profession, as with many industries, is under immense pressure. By offering free membership we are giving equine vets easy access to a wealth of supportive resources and online CPD to help them through these dark times.”

BEVA membership includes:

• Online access to BEVA Journals, Equine Veterinary Journal and Equine Veterinary Education.
• Free access to online learning resources which include a monthly webinar series and a range of quick quizzes and activities to help vets and vet nurses top up their CPD requirements.
• During the COVID-19 outbreak, regular updates and advice to the profession through email and SMS to members.
• The latest news from the industry via an eNews newsletter that is sent out every other Friday

The association is also looking at other ways to support the profession, which has included making all BEVA Congress 2019 webinars available to members via the BEVA online learning platform.

To sign up from Monday 30 March 2020 visit: https://www.beva.org.uk/Join-BEVA 

Ceva Animal Health, the maker of Ketofen 10%, has launched ‘Wave Goodbye to Pain’, a campaign to highlight the impact of pain relief in lame cattle and the role it can play in improving recovery time and results.

The company says the initiative, which is targeted at veterinary professionals and farmers, will be supported by an extensive social media, advertising and PR campaign.

The social media campaign will take the form of social media content, newsletter articles and images for veterinary practices to use on their social media channels and will include information on the cost of dairy cow lameness and tips to manage lameness.

Rose Jackson BVSc DBR CertVBM MRCVS is the farm clinical director at Scarsdale Vets which has already trialled the new materials. She said: “The ‘Wave Goodbye to Pain’ social media content has ensured that we are able to post eye-catching and thought-provoking content to continue to engage with our clients and raise awareness of the ‘triple works’ approach to lameness in cows, which includes using a NSAID such as Ketofen, alongside a trim and block for a more complete recovery from lameness than trimming alone.”

The ‘Wave Goodbye to Pain’ campaign was launched following a study by Nottingham University which revealed that NSAIDs have a synergistic effect when given alongside effective hoof trimming and blocking to treat lameness¹. 

The study looked at claw horn disease of the hind foot and found that trimming alone resulted in a 69% rate of return to mobility without lameness in 35 days. Adding a block into an effective trimming protocol raised the success rate to 72%; trimming and administering a NSAID raised it to 76%. Interestingly, using all three techniques together - trimming, applying a block and administering an NSAID - resulted in 85% of cases being successfully resolved (Mobility score or 0 or 1).

Gemma Robinson BVM BVS MRCVS, ruminant veterinary adviser at Ceva Animal Health, said: “The study highlights that effective and prompt pain relief with NSAIDs can quickly help restore animals back to full productivity. Attitudes on the use of pain relief have changed significantly over the last 10 years and dairy farmers can have a positive influence by ensuring they recognise the value of NSAIDs and prioritise their use on-farm.  It is important that vets discuss NSAIDs with their clients, both to manage illness and for routine procedures, and our ‘Wave Goodbye to Pain’ campaign will help encourage farmers to think about their current pain management plan, take action and seek help from their vet.

“Some concerns have been raised that the issues associated with antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic administration are causing farmers to avoid the use of all injectable treatments. We need to be clear that NSAIDs are anti-inflammatories, not antibiotics, and it is important they are used for pain management, fever and the clinical signs associated with many common conditions. With zero milk-withhold NSAIDs available - there really is no reason to hesitate when it comes to administering pain relief in otherwise healthy cattle.”

For more information on the ‘Wave Goodbye to Pain’ campaign visit the website designed for farmers (www.wavegoodbyetopain.co.uk), contact your local Ceva territory manager or call 01494 781510. 

To request a copy of the ‘Wave Goodbye to Pain’ social media pack (including pre-developed posts and images which you can send out to your own clients), speak to your Ceva territory manager or email: cevauk@ceva.com with your name, practice name and address details.

References

1. Thomas H.J. et al. 2015. Evaluation of treatments for claw horn lesions in dairy cows in a randomized control trial. J. Dairy Sci. 98: 4477-4486.

The RCVS has reduced the annual requirement of hours of CPD that veterinary surgeons are expected to undertake in 2020 by 25% due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The annual minimum requirement for vets will be reduced from 35 to 26 hours of CPD, while that of veterinary nurses will be reduced from 15 to 11 hours. The reduction comes into force immediately.

A similar 25% reduction will also be introduced for veterinary surgeons holding Advanced Practitioner or RCVS Specialist status.

The decision to reduce the hours was made by the new RCVS Council COVID-19 Taskforce, chaired by RCVS President Dr Niall Connell, which was set up in order to make temporary policy decisions related to the pandemic in a quicker and more agile way. The proposal had previously been considered and supported by the RCVS Education Committee, VN Council and CPD Policy Working Group.

Niall said: “A number of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses expressed concern that it may be difficult to undertake CPD at present and so, in order to give the professions some breathing space, we decided we would reduce the minimum hours required for 2020. We also recognise that some practices are having to make the difficult decision to reduce their CPD budgets this year in response to falling footfall.

"However, it is worth reiterating that CPD need not be expensive or require physical attendance at lectures, congresses or other events. There are many online providers of CPD and other resources such as articles and webinars, some of which may be free. The key is that the CPD is relevant to you and enhances your professional practice and so we would still encourage all our members to undertake CPD as and when they can."

The policy will be under regular review and may be extended further if the circumstances demand. Those with any questions on the policy change should contact the RCVS Education Department on cpd@rcvs.org.uk

A full range of FAQs on the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on the veterinary profession are available to view at www.rcvs.org.uk/coronavirus

The RCVS has announced that veterinary surgeons will be able to spread the cost of their annual renewal fees over the course of the calendar year to mitigate against the financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

The measures agreed by RCVS Council will allow UK-practising members to spread the cost of renewal over three instalments: paying 50% of the full cost by 30th April, 25% by 30th September, and the remaining 25% by 31st December.

Kit Sturgess, Treasurer, said: “We recognise that most veterinary businesses will be seeing a downtown during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, especially as veterinary practices reduce their workloads to emergency-only procedures or those that can be classed as urgent. Furthermore, we understand that many individual veterinary surgeons will no longer be working, and that this will cause financial difficulties for many vets and their families.

"We appreciate that this is a very difficult time for the profession, and as part of our compassionate approach to regulation we wanted to do our bit to help people manage the difficult financial consequences of the coronavirus crisis, and to help them to return to work as soon as Government advice allows. While fees for veterinary nurses are not due until the end of the year, we will keep the impact of the coronavirus pandemic under review on an ongoing basis.”

Any UK-practising member wishing to switch to the payment-by-instalments system should cancel their existing Direct Debits immediately (the College has already temporarily deferred these direct debits for around 10-14 days to allow time for them to be cancelled).

The College says that any member who does not pay the first instalment of 50% of the total fee by the end of April will need to pay the full amount in one instalment by the end of May. Should they then fail to make this payment, the College would then have to remove their name from the Register.

Those who pay the initial 50% instalment but fail to pay one or both of the subsequent 25% instalments will be moved to the non-practising Register for up to one year. This would mean that they could transfer back to the UK-practising Register without incurring a restoration fee. However, they would no longer legally be entitled to practise as a veterinary surgeon while on the non-practising Register until they had paid the retention fee in full and been transferred back to the UK-practising Register.

RCVS Council also agreed that the higher fee that usually applies for late payments, ie those made between 1 May and 30 May, will not be applied to any category of membership this year.

Members can opt to move to the new arrangements or continue with full payment. Details of how to pay under the new arrangements will be sent to members shortly. Any member who has already paid their fee in full and would like to switch to the payment-by-instalments mechanism should contact the College on refunds@rcvs.org.uk.

Further details about the scheme are available in a detailed Frequently Asked Questions guide via www.rcvs.org.uk/coronavirus.

COMMENT
It has been argued that at a time when many veterinary surgeons have lost a significant part of their livelihood, the College should have gone further and reduced the renewal fees, at least for the period of time that vets' earning ability is compromised. I'm not qualified to judge whether the College could have afforded that, and a spokesman would only say: "...we have to work within the framework of the legislation and the statutory instrument and, given this, the measures that RCVS Council has put in place is a reasonable outcome and will assist veterinary surgeons who may be struggling during these very tough times." 

A new study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Small Animal Practice (JSAP), found that relying on total calcium concentrations alone to diagnose dogs with ionised hypercalcaemia may result in misclassification in around one third of dogs.

Investigation of the relationship between ionised and total calcium in dogs with ionised hypercalcaemia¹ was undertaken by Tørnqvist-Johnsen et al. at the Hospital for Small Animals, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Initially, a normal reference interval for ionised calcium, total calcium and albumin, serum and plasma biochemistry was established by analysing samples from 351 healthy adult dogs.

After establishing a reference interval for ionised calcium, the laboratory’s database was searched for adult dogs with ionised hypercalcaemia that had attended the university small animal hospital between 2012 and 2017, a time frame when the same sample handling protocols and instrumentation was in use. The hospital records were searched for patient information and the biochemical parameters statistically analysed.

Of 63 dogs identified with ionised hypercalcaemia, 23 did not have a total hypercalcaemia (37%). 16 of these 23 dogs (70%) had albumin within the reference interval. To summarise the key findings; using total calcium, one third of patients with ionised hypercalcaemia were not identified. There was also no significant relationship between albumin and total calcium in these cases.

Camilla Tørnqvist-Johnsen, lead author of the paper, said: "Hypercalcaemia is a very important clinical abnormality, often revealing severe underlying disease in dogs who do not get idiopathic hypercalcaemia. This study reveals the true importance of doing an ionised calcium measurement when evaluating calcaemic status."

Nick Jeffery, Editor of JSAP said: "This study demonstrates that, if relying on total calcium alone, more than one third of dogs with ionised hypercalcaemia will be classified as normocalcaemic. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the discordance between ionised and total calcium cannot be routinely explained by a low protein-bound component.

"Whilst reference intervals are key in clinical practice to determine whether a result is an outlier from 95% of a healthy population, it is not inevitable that a patient with an outlying biochemical test result has a clinically relevant disease."

The full article can be found in the April issue of the Journal of Small Animal Practice which is free for BSAVA members. It can also be read online here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsap.13109 

Reference

1. C. Tørnqvist-Johnsen, T. Schnabel, A. G. Gow, J. Del-Pozo, E. Milne, V. Macklin, C. Fisher, I. Handel and R. J. Mellanby (2020) Investigation of the relationship between ionised and total calcium in dogs with ionised hypercalcaemia. Journal of Small Animal Practice, 61 (4). Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsap.13109    

XLVets, the cooperative of independent practices, has decided to share its resources with independent practices that are not currently members.

XLVets has called on experts in people development, legal, IT and HR, as well as its practice owners, managers and team leaders to develop a package of coronavirus resources. The package includes guidance and best practice, tips offered by XLVets members, expert guidance in the use of technology to support home workers, access to the XLVets Thriving in Practice wellbeing initiative and more. 

To access the resources at www.xlvets.co.uk without charge or obligation, email admin@xlvets.co.uk.

Colm McGinn (pictured right), from XLVets said: "We are very good at working together to develop solutions for problems and supporting each other. This is a national challenge and while our members have faced some difficult decisions, they've been able to share that decision-making process with their peers, calling on them for ideas, guidance and support.

"It's a big ask for just one or two partners to interpret the guidance in a rapidly changing environment and to stay informed about advice from regulatory bodies and associations. We've all benefited from sharing knowledge and it's lifted some of the pressure that comes from taking individual action, while still having freedom to do what's right for your own practice and people. I can't think of a better time for us to share our learning and resources for the greater good."

For more information, visit: https://www.xlvets.co.uk/the-boss.