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© Veterinary Business Development Ltd 2025

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16 Sept 2020

Federation hits back at idea of retaining remote prescribing

Group representing independent practices says RCVS opting to give permanent green light to remote prescribing of medicines would be “the thin end of the wedge”.

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James Westgate

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Federation hits back at idea of retaining remote prescribing

Image © nito / Adobe Stock

A group representing independent practices has slammed calls for the RCVS to give a permanent green light to the remote prescribing of medicines.

Richard Weston, practising vet and spokesman for the Federation of Independent Veterinary Practices, has said making the measure permanent would be “the thin end of the wedge”.

The college suspended its guidance to allow remote prescribing on 24 March so that veterinary practices could continue to provide emergency veterinary care while adhering to the strict social distancing guidelines in place at the time. However, with so many practices adopting remote prescribing during the past six months, the RCVS has been “under pressure from both sides” ahead of another planned review of the highly controversial issue.

On offensive

Now, Dr Weston has gone on the offensive in response to a Vet Times article (VT50.35) in which former CVS veterinary director and co-founder of vet app Joii, Robert Dawson, called for remote prescribing to be retained permanently.

He said: “If the world was flat the idea would be in space. Sure, telemedicine has its place, but remote prescribing does not. The underlying principle of our profession is the care of the pet/herd/flock. You cannot care for an animal you have not seen and whose past history you are unaware of. This has been my model for the past 40 years and will remain my model for the rest of my professional career.

“While a vet can have a conversation with a pet owner in general about a clinical condition, he or she cannot pass comment on the diagnosis and treatment of that specific pet until he or she has all the past history and has examined the animal. Only then is the animal under the vet’s care.

‘Under vet’s care’

He added: “Whichever way you interpret it, there is no way an animal can be under a vet’s care without the vet seeing the animal and examining it, and having knowledge of all the previous history, or at least making every effort to collate as much history as possible.”

Having run his own practice for decades, Dr Weston has used telemedicine in one form or another for many years, but still feels remote prescribing is a step too far.

He added: “Usually the client is in the practice during these consults and there is a vet or nurse on hand to examine as required. And in this COVID-19 crisis we have used it more, with all vets in the practice using the facility. However, we have never consulted or advised a pet owner who is not registered with the practice and who has never been seen. That is the thin edge of the wedge.”

Safe

One of the concerns around remote prescribing is a lack of evidence as to its safety, but Mr Dawson insists the process is safe and that a vast amount of data is now available to inform any future decisions on the subject made by the college.

He said: “The industry must move forward with evidence – not speculation and opinion. We have invested heavily in evidence-based research that proves telemedicine and remote prescribing works. We have clear evidence of thousands of cases that shows remote prescribing to be successful throughout COVID-19.

“We do request a clinical history for all ongoing cases – especially any case that we would like to prescribe POM-V medication for – and we have monitored all remote prescription clients carefully. We have strict protocols in place that our vets follow to ensure we only prescribe in cases where it is appropriate and we have a fully enforced antimicrobial resistance policy with very low usage of oral antibiotics.”

 

  • The full story is in this week’s Vet Times (15 September issue).