CMA review raises law reform hope, says senior BVA official

An ongoing examination of the UK veterinary sector could finally herald long-awaited reforms of the laws that govern it, a senior official has claimed.

BVA senior vice-president Malcolm Morley sounded an optimistic note as he joined other leading industry figures on the panel for the second Big 6 Live debate at the London Vet Show.

The discussion focused on the issues being considered within the current review by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

But while most panellists were more cautious, Dr Morley said he hoped the process may pave the way for full regulation of veterinary businesses, as well as individual professionals.

Pivot conversation

Dr Morley said: “This may be a chink in the armour in how we pivot the whole conversation about the need for a new [Veterinary Surgeons Act] and regulated practice standards.”

The review, launched in September, is focusing on four main areas – service pricing, prescription and medication sales, practice ownership awareness and out-of-hours care provision. While some panellists admitted initial feelings of disappointment at the process being launched, there was also broad agreement that it can be a starting point for the sector to review itself and instigate change.

XLVets chief executive Andrew Curwen questioned whether public reactions to the pursuit of “gold-standard” care may have influenced the review’s launch as he urged delegates to be more curious about aspects of their work that pet owners might still be in the dark about.

He said: “We’re here to serve our clients. They’re not here to serve us.”

Assess package

On pricing, SPVS board chairperson Pete Orpin said: “Now is an opportunity to look again at the overall package of how we charge because that will give us headroom in terms of how to fix this.”

But BVNA president Lyndsay Hughes argued the professions need to do more to communicate the kind of service practice teams offer to the public.

She highlighted the contrast between a client leaving a practice with a diagnosis of their pet’s issue within a few hours to a human patient waiting days or even weeks for information.

She said: “We need to shout about what our staff are doing.”

Explore challenges

VMG president Miles Russell said his organisation was willing to explore ways of addressing what he views as one of the sector’s main challenges: explaining the worth of professionals’ time, skills and knowledge. He said: “We are a service industry but we provide real value. There is a huge amount of skill.”

But British Veterinary Union chairperson Suzanna Hudson-Cooke urged caution in projecting value to clients if staff feel value is not being shown within practices themselves.

She highlighted data from the Office for National Statistics, which indicated veterinary prices have risen five times faster than wages, as she called for the sector to demonstrate to the public that it was not “money-grabbing”.

She also argued that examples of workers using food banks or even having to give up their jobs because they could not meet travel costs showed more progress was needed, adding: “These are real things that are happening to real people in our sector.”

Extent of reforms

Although the CMA is expected to report its initial findings early in the new year, views have been mixed about the extent of any reforms the authority might seek to impose.

While some analysts argued that financial markets had overreacted in the wake of the review’s launch, others believe further examinations like those that occurred in the CMA’s review of the funeral service sector are more likely.

Dr Morley told delegates: “Don’t be perturbed or concerned if this seems to be dragging on for a bit, because it will.”

But after associations including the BVA noted the transition towards more commercially viable providers of out-of-hours care in a joint-review submission published earlier this month, he argued regulators should acknowledge that part of the sector cannot support competition.

External operator

He said that part of his own practice’s out-of-hours provision was covered by an external operator, adding: “If we remove that, that would be a seismic shock to our profession.

“We support a diversity of business models, which is what the CMA wants to see, and that out-of-hours provision is supporting everybody from your small independent to your large corporate group.”

Dr Hudson-Cooke argued that other countries that do not have the UK’s provision model experience more acute difficulties, but acknowledged the need for options to be clearly communicated to clients.

Meanwhile, Mr Curwen suggested professionals could be missing out on vital experience if they do not do out-of-hours work, despite admitting it made him “a grumpy git”.

He said: “All of my really good clinical learning in the first few years was done out of hours and if we don’t do that, I really do think we’re depriving ourselves of happiness, I really do.”