Not My College ?

  From this week's Vet times; 'The college has invited clinicians who have concerns about their independence being undermined to use a confidential helpline to report their concerns following allegations in a Radio 4 investigation.' Can this be the same College that commissioned a former senior police officer to interrogate the RCVS Council in a bid to identify the person who leaked their serious  concerns  about changes to the disciplinary process.   Really ?  The investigation is believed to have cost tens of thousands of pounds but the RCVS has refused to say how much (it's not your money it's ours, shut up!). After all that they didn't find the leak, but the point had been made; as the saying goes, 'the process is the punishment.' So here's a question for the RCVS. Where should Council members go, to whom should they report their  concerns, as our out of touch, elitist College moves further and further away from the practising profession?  Thi...

Its almost May, the snowdrops are out, and with the spring comes the annual RCVS begging letter.  When many of the membership are struggling to cope with record costs-of-living, a demand for payment is never welcome, particularly when it has increased by 4% Perhaps if the College hadn't splurged £20 million on their new headquarters (which after more than two years they still haven’t occupied) in the process emptying the contingency fund * which was,  ' built up over a number of years for just such an eventuality,'   or so we're told, the increase might have been absorbed. With more of the profession practicing part-time, shouldn't we be looking at reducing the fees for those working shorter hours ? It would certainly be a more equitable way of doing things but I'm not holding my breath. Empires are being built even as we speak and empires need money, in this case yours.  Where are they putting the throne room     *C on·tin·gency fund  [contingency f...

Gerry Henry, a  regular contributor to Samizdat is standing for election to the RCVS Council (again !). We took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his candidacy. Sam . The electoral process has changed this year, no candidate statement but a series of questions and answers instead. Do you think it's an improvement ? GH . Not really, it reads more like a job application for Morrison's. In the past the Candidate Statement allowed you to introduce and develop an idea, this is just a series of little 200 word puffs that could be entitled, 'why I'm just the best thing since sliced bread.'  The bigger change which you haven't mentioned, is candidates are now only required to answer one question posed by the membership, not two as previously, and they still get to pick the one they answer. Personally I think candidates should have to answer at least four questions, with the two questions most commonly asked by the membership being compulsory. Allowing u...

We need a new Veterinary Surgeons Act - apparently. Time has moved on and the old one (1966) is no longer serviceable. It's hard to disagree, and if that was what it was about, simply updating, then I wouldn't object. But we're dealing with the RCVS here so it's always wise to look for the ulterior motive. In this case it's in plain sight - they want to use a new Veterinary Surgeons Act to abolish elections and move to an appointed council. It's a power grab pure and simple. The last vestiges of democratic accountability would finally be gone and we'd move to an 'independently appointed' (laff laff) Council, stuffed with the great and the good, all bristling with the relevant skill sets and just itching to get on with advancing the interests of the corporates promoting the best interests of the profession. Does anyone seriously believe the big players (you know who I'm talking about) wouldn't move heaven and earth to get their people 'i...