26 Mar 2021
RCVS publishes new COVID guidelines for the professions, which will replace current emergency guidance and help return practices to near-normal operations.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
Fresh guidance to help veterinary professionals plot their way out of lockdowns and return to near-normal operations has been revealed by the RCVS.
Subject to various governments’ plans staying in place, practices will be able to take their own professional judgement on the services they wish to provide, and still meet ongoing requirements to maintain biosecurity and social distancing.
The college is also keeping the temporary right to remote prescribe in place, but only where no suitable alternative exists and subject to certain requirements.
A year on from the announcement of the UK’s first national lockdown, the college’s COVID recovery guidance replaces its current advice, including its flow charts to assist pandemic treatment decision-making. Practices will no longer be expected to provide only essential or urgent services.
Each government in the UK has set road maps out of the current lockdowns, with some businesses reopening in Wales on 22 March, Scotland on 5 April, and in England and Northern Ireland on 12 April.
The recovery guidance will remain as long as each of the four nations sticks on their current roadmaps.
The RCVS’ COVID-19 task force, in place since the start of the pandemic to make prompt pandemic-related policy decisions – for example, on remote prescription or EMS – will continue into the summer, but decisions will be reviewed and decisions made as to which to retain, amend or reverse by college committees.
The BVA has separate guidance for practices on working safety as lockdown restrictions are eased on its website.
