Second RCVS survey shows some signs of recovery

The RCVS has published the report on its second survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on veterinary businesses.

Held between 1 and 5 May, the survey was sent to the 3,139 UK veterinary practices for which the RCVS holds a unique email address. It gathered 251 responses (a response rate of 8%).

Key changes

• Fewer practices being affected by vets and vet nurses having to self-isolate with suspected COVID or COVID-like symptoms.
  Some 30% of respondent practices were affected by this in the April survey, compared to 20% in the May survey.
• A majority of respondent practices (69%) were seeing a reduced caseload, including some routine work, while 26% had limited their caseload to emergencies only.
  In the April survey, the overwhelming majority of respondent practices (97%) had limited their caseloads to emergency or urgent cases only.
• Practice turnover has improved, with the most frequent response (46%) being a 25% to 50% drop in turnover, while just 6% of practices reported a more than 75% reduction in turnover.
  In the April survey, 42% of respondents reported a 51% to 75% fall in turnover, while 24% of respondents reported a fall in turnover of more than 75%.

Framework

RCVS chief executive Lizzie Lockett said: “I am glad to see that the framework we published in April has, so far as we can see, provided veterinary professionals with greater guidance and reassurance regarding the fact that if it is feasible to do something safely under social distancing guidelines, then they can go ahead, if they choose to.

“We left plenty of scope for veterinary professionals to use their clinical judgement as to what services actually offer, depending on their facilities, level of staffing, availability of protective equipment, local disease pressures and so on.”

Vital

She added: “However, it is also clear that we are, by no means, out of the woods and that veterinary businesses are still struggling financially, with some of them reporting a very acute impact of the coronavirus and the associated restrictions on their businesses.

“We will continue to monitor the situation via these regular surveys, with the next one planned for early June. I would urge as many practices as possible to continue to complete them, so that we can build up a stronger evidence base on how veterinary businesses have been affected.

“This information is not only vital for our own policy decisions, but also allows us to present a stronger case to the Government and other public bodies where we wish to influence the decisions they make that will impact the veterinary professions and businesses.”