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RCVS launches consultation on Schedule 3
The aim of the consultation is to improve understanding of how Schedule 3 is used and interpreted in practice, and how the legislation could be clarified.
Working party looking to gather views on current legislation

Veterinary professionals are being asked to share their views on Schedule 3 and the role of veterinary nurses, in a new consultation launched by the RCVS.

Schedule 3 of the Veterinary Surgeons Act provides that veterinary surgeons can direct registered or student veterinary nurses whom they employ to carry out limited veterinary surgery.

However, evidence gathered during the VN Futures project suggests there is some uncertainty surrounding the interpretation of Schedule 3 in clinical practice. Many veterinary nurses do not undertake this work or are uncertain as to whether they do, and some veterinary surgeons are reluctant to delegate these tasks to veterinary nurses.

The aim of the consultation is to improve understanding of how Schedule 3 is used and interpreted in practice, and how the legislation could be clarified. Furthermore, the Schedule 3 working party want to find out if there are areas of practice that could be opened up to veterinary nurses, but are currently prohibited by Schedule 3.

One of the ambitions to come out of VN Futures was to create a ‘clarified and bolstered VN role via a reformed Schedule 3’. The consultation forms part of this wider review.

Liz Cox, chair of the VN Council and Schedule 3 Working Party, said: “The future of veterinary nursing is both challenging and exciting, with the convergence of such factors as Brexit, the development of new technologies, and the increasing specialisation of veterinary surgeons, and we would very much like to know how you think the role of veterinary nurse will evolve.

“In light of this we very much encourage all veterinary nurses and veterinary surgeons to complete this consultation.”

The consultation is being run by the Institute for Employment Studies and all eligible veterinary surgeons and nurses have been emailed with a link to the survey.

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RCVS Knowledge appoints Veterinary Evidence editor-in-chief

News Story 1
 RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence.

A world-renowned expert in evidence-based veterinary medicine, Prof Cockcroft will lead the strategic development and editorial quality of the open-access journal. He was previously in the role from 2017-2020.

Katie Mantell, CEO of RCVS Knowledge, said: "We are excited about the extensive knowledge of evidence-based veterinary medicine and clinical veterinary research that Peter brings, and we look forward to working with him over this next phase of the journal's development." 

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CVS Group hit by cyber attack

CVS Group, which owns more than 450 veterinary practices in the UK, has been hit by a cyber attack.

In a statement, the group said the incident involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. As soon as the attack was discovered, the group took its IT systems temporarily offline, causing 'considerable operational disruption'.

It has warned that the security steps taken and ongoing plans to move its operational systems and IT infrastructure to the Cloud are likely to have an ongoing impact over a number of weeks.

Due to the risk that personal information was accessed, CVS has informed the Information Commissioner's Office. The company is working with third party consultants to investigate the incident.