Solutions for Pet Healthcare

The RCVS

Full of complaints

If you're looking to make a complaint about a vet, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) is the place to do it. But remember, the 'Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' remains a misnomer. The real organisation that organises vets, advises them, and demonstrates how to become better communicators, even better vets, and helps solve common problems, or guides towards solving technical issues, is called the Veterinary Defence Society (or VDS). Presumedly the RCVS coined the best name first, and the VDS was left with an alternative. So what exactly does the RCVS do? The RCVS prosecutes vets.


Fair deal

Most pets owners just want to know that their pets are being treated properly at the vets, and if something goes wrong they want to know why? So if something does go wrong and I make a complaint, will my complaint be heard? The answer is probably not, because complainants report that most complaints are filed under 'B' for 'bin'. You may get a letter though from the RCVS explaining that after careful consideration, they've got considerable doubt that anything should be done. One vet opened up a cat to spay it, but when he couldn't find the reproductive tract he simply closed it up again without taking anything out, and gave it back to the owner. When the cat later had kittens, the owner complained to the RCVS. The vet replied to the RCVS that he'd had high blood pressure, and he suggested that it had caused him to lose his memory during the spay. The RCVS took no action other than to 'hold his file open' for 2 years.

Will my complaint be heard?

If (according to someone who's handled RCVS complaints for over a decade) most complaints are filed under 'B' for 'bin', then what's the chance that I'll get some justice for my complaint? The forms are long enough, and I've spent ages taking the time to make the complaint. What will motivate the RCVS to take action against a vet that I've complained about? There's interesting news, and there's also more interesting news.

The interesting news, is that the RCVS currently thinks there's more kudos in prosecuting vets than there is in promoting advancements in Veterinary Medicine, and they've recently changed their mission statement to reflect that. This is a high risk gamble though, because the government has already looked at replacing the RCVS with a totally lay body - the RCVS apparently exists to 'build public confidence in the veterinary profession' but not every case will give the RCVS kudos in the news. The more interesting news, is that vets have twice as many complaints made against them as doctors and there are now a third more vets working in the UK (from the ten countries joining the EU in 2004), so the RCVS has a lot more paper work to process. A lot of complaints get weeded out, and a case needs to be 'newsworthy'.

The RCVS will also naturally block any cases that they see as negative for them in the news. A vet who featured in a national newspaper article in 2009 was investigated by the RCVS, and he asked for a public hearing, but because of the negative issues he wanted to raise at a public hearing, the RCVS refused to give him one. Like any organisation, the RCVS lives by its kudos, so unless your complaints are positively eye-catching for the RCVS, they'll probably get buried.

The RCVS is an organisation of human beings, and as such, it reflects the feelings of those human beings. It could be your lucky day, and your complaint(s) could be against a vet who is 'unhelpful' to the RCVS. Then you really are likely to get a good hearing for your complaints! A lot of luck is undoubtedly required.



What if the RCVS won't do anything?

There's less interesting news, in this case. The RCVS is the only regulating body in the UK for veterinary surgeons. You can almost see their thinking in a recent PIC (Preliminary Investigation Committee) report issued in 2011. Reference is made to 'whether a case is likely to be proven if it's progressed' or 'whether the RCVS is likely to secure a guilty verdict if they spend money on prosecuting it'. Their statistics give the impression of predefined targets, much like a traffic warden's quota, and there's little mention of considering each case on its merits. The reality is that the RCVS has to pay solicitors to take witness statements, and barristers are employed for the hearings, so their costs run into hundreds of thousands of pounds - the RCVS can't do that too often. People within the RCVS also have differing opinions, so it becomes a lottery as to what actually happens at the end of the day.



Can other vets help me?

Again, there's interesting and more interesting news. Unlike doctors, vets will happily attack each other because they're competing for clients ie. because there's no central government NHS funding to prop up vets financially, when business life gets tough. Consequently, you may get help from other vets re your complaint. The more interesting news however, is that eighty-two per cent of vets dislike the RCVS. This is because the RCVS prosecutes vets and extracts money from them for 'legal reasons'. Most of the RCVS is run by paid staff (a lot of 'blood sucking lawyers' as one vet put it) together with a group of elected vets. You'd think that the vets would be the decision makers, but as a former RCVS President explained, if there's a conflict of opinions between the vets and the lawyers, the lawyers will win under 'legal reasons'. Hence, the previous RCVS mission statement used to promote veterinary advancements and progression within the industry, but the new RCVS mission statement now concentrates on legally prosecuting vets. This probably wasn't the best of moves in an industry that has the highest rate of suicides. To add insult to inury, the RCVS recently commissioned a university professor to investigate why vets commit suicide. It's unclear whether this was just a faux pas or an attempt by the RCVS to bury its new 'anti-vet' mission statement? The bottom line is that yes, many vets will help your complaint(s) (sometimes so that they can compete with other vets locally), but most ethical vets will be loathed to assist the RCVS [in prosecuting colleagues].

Talk first

All of the boring things you've heard previously are the same concepts that will help you, if things go wrong at the vets. Vets are merely human, so they have to be trained to remain calm, and if you can also remain calm there's a good chance you'll get a statisfactory result. The result should be your key objective, followed only afterwards by a chance to speak your mind.

No vet has trained for five years to deliberately harm your pets, but you've also got the right to expect that they'll do what they'd said they would, and to the best of their ability. If you're not satisfied, get the vet practice to put it right at zero cost. Sometimes however, there are common complications with surgery, and it's also reasonable to expect that there can be a charge for a second operation. Quite often a vet practice will reduce the cost of work for complications to almost zero. But probably you knew all this already?

Also be wary of second opinions that aggressively attack the vet you've been complaining against. It's easier for a vet to work off the back of any previous vet's treatment, and a vet who's buffing a halo is often just hiding some horns... together with some rather peachy horror stories.


Final solution

If all else fails, you can always resort to calling in the RCVS.