RCVS outlines ‘under care’ review plan

Detailed analysis of the impact from reforms of the veterinary profession’s “under care” guidance is set to begin this summer.

The RCVS said it has commissioned research that it hopes will help to identify areas where further amendments or clarifications might be needed.

The views of individual clinicians will also be sought through a separate consultation exercise, which is currently expected to open later in the year.

Although RCVS leaders confirmed in January that work had begun to collate data from the first year of the new rules, little else has been known about the review process until now.

Research

The college now plans to work with VetCompass on research examining how prescribing behaviours have changed in practice since the revised rules relating to POM-Vs came into force.

The project is expected to start in June and take around nine months to complete.

Discussing the review in a session at the recent BSAVA Congress in Manchester, college president Linda Belton said it had been “interesting” to hear the discussion among delegates about prescribing practices.

She added: “It’s all about if the way we’re working now is appropriate.”

Consultation

No firm timescale has yet been given for the consultation process, though a college spokesperson told Vet Times they wanted to run it “concurrently” with the POM-V research and report the findings of both schemes at the same time.

She said: “The data collected from both will be used to inform future decision making on under care.”

Although the new rules were given the green light by the college’s council in early 2023, implementation of some of the POM-V guidance was delayed until early last year after concerns were raised about potential non-compliance.