Lincolnshire vet struck off following multiple care failings

A Lincolnshire-based vet has been struck off over clinical failings in the care of 18 different animals during a period of more than three years.

An RCVS disciplinary committee accepted Emma Bowler had been working in a highly pressurised environment that was “somewhat unsupportive” to her.

But it also concluded she had demonstrated a “reckless disregard for professional standards” and her actions amounted to serious professional misconduct “individually and cumulatively”.

Newly published documents revealed an expert witness had earlier told the panel her actions relating to two of the animals “showed rank incompetence”.

‘Appalling surgery’

The incidents occurred between August 2018 and March 2022, when Ms Bowler was head of small animal veterinary surgery for Rase Vets.

Although she did not attend the two hearings that took place in her case, on the grounds of ill-health, her legal representatives admitted five of the 26 individual allegations against her at the outset and made partial admissions to 11 others.

Most of the concerns related to the standard of radiographs taken in individual cases, where Ms Bowler “disputed” the evidence offered by an expert witness for the college, Mark Bush, that a magnification mark was always necessary.

He described one such case, where a post-surgery image showed the fracture had not been stabilised, as “a case of genuinely appalling surgery”.

He added that her conduct in that instance “displays a complete absence of any understanding of veterinary orthopaedics”.

False statements

Ms Bowler was also charged over a total hip replacement operation she carried out on a dog in January 2020, plus revision surgery undertaken the following month, as well as false statements made to a dog owner following surgery carried out in May 2021.

In the former case, she admitted she had not performed such an operation on a live animal before and the committee was told the surgery happened without support or supervision from another vet.

The dog, named Bear, was subsequently transferred to a referral practice several months later after radiographs showed the revision surgery, performed after the initial operation proved unsuccessful, had also failed.

In the latter case, the committee heard the owners of a Jack Russell terrier named Daisy had made a complaint alleging surgery was performed on the wrong leg, after they were told that her left cruciate ligament had ruptured.

Repeated failings

However, despite acknowledged inconsistencies in her accounts, and attempts to blame a colleague being considered an aggravating feature of the case, the panel said it could not be sure Ms Bowler had acted dishonestly. It also accepted she had established the right cruciate ligament was ruptured in a pre-surgery examination.

All but four of the allegations against Ms Bowler were found proved by the committee, with two others deemed proved in part.

Although her representatives had argued for a suspension, the panel said her actions had demonstrated repeated and “egregious” failings, which were “incompatible” with her remaining on the register.

Ms Bowler has 28 days to appeal to the Privy Council from the day she was formally notified of the ruling.