New guidance hopes to empower vets to refuse home visits when they feel it is unsafe or unnecessary.

Changes to guidance place greater emphasis on owner responsibilities

New guidance has been published on the provision of 24-hour emergency veterinary care and pain relief, the RCVS has announced.

Chapters two and three of the supporting guidance for the Code of Professional Conduct have been officially updated, to place greater emphasis on the owners' legal responsibilities when it comes to the welfare of their animal. Veterinary surgeons are also obligated to give clients full details of their 24-hour emergency cover provision.

While veterinary surgeons remain professionally obliged to take steps to provide out-of-hours care, the new guidance clarifies the circumstances in which delaying or declining to attend may be appropriate.

As a result, the college hopes vets will feel empowered to refuse to attend an animal away from the practice when they believe it to be unsafe or unnecessary.

The new guidance is the result of an evidence gathering process launched in December last year by the RCVS standards committee, prompted by disquiet among the profession and questions raised by RCVS laypeople.

Clare Tapsfield-Wright, the committee's chairman, said a number of questions had been raised by lay people working with the college about the veterinary profession's ability to provide 24-hour care to the extent required by the code of conduct, and that expected by the public.

Previously, concerns about 24-hour veterinary care were ignited by the disciplinary hearing of Munhuwepasi Chikosi in June 2013, where the locum vet was struck off for delaying attendance to an injured dog.

Along with 656 pages of written evidence, the standards committee considered responses from a petition with over 2,100 signatures calling for the RCVS to remove mandatory house visits from the code of conduct.

A three-day hearing was held with 15 organisations and 10 individuals who were invited to give evidence. Committee members also took into account an online survey of 1,250 animal owners and more than 1,000 responses from veterinary surgeons taking part in the survey of the professions.

Having reviewed the evidence, the committee developed the new guidance, which was approved in principle at the RCVS Council's June meeting.

RCVS registrar Gordon Hockey commented: “Following the considerable disquiet within the profession following the disciplinary committee’s decision on the Chikosi hearing in June 2013, we decided that only a thorough evidence-gathering process with all parties could resolve the apparent gap between the expectation of the public regarding 24-hour emergency care and the profession’s ability to meet this.

“By making the legal and professional obligations of veterinary surgeons and the welfare obligations of animal owners clearer we hope that this new guidance should allay some of the frustrations and concerns of the profession.”

View the new supporting guidance for chapter three “24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief”: www.rcvs.org.uk/247care

View additional guidance for chapter two “veterinary care”: www.rcvs.org.uk/vetcare