1 Jun 2021
Cheltenham vet suspended for three months by the RCVS disciplinary committee after being found guilty of professional misconduct for mishandling a series of bTB tests.
Vet Times
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A Cheltenham vet has been suspended from the register after he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct after a series of mishandled bTB tests.
The RCVS disciplinary committee has determined that David Chalkley had failed to properly account for all of the cattle he had been charged with testing.
The first charge alleged that Mr Chalkley, while carrying out intradermal comparative tuberculin (ICT) tests at the farm in question, failed to identify some or all of the animals tested.
The second charge stated that Mr Chalkley had certified he had carried out ICT tests on 279 animals at the farm and recorded the results on the accompanying paperwork, but had in fact not adequately identified some or all of the 279 animals and had fabricated the skin thickness measurements recorded for some of them.
The third charge claimed Mr Chalkley received payment of approximately £20,000 for ICT tests when, as a result of his conduct in relation to the tests at the farm, he was not entitled to such payment.
Mr Chalkley, admitted the first charge, namely that he had not on 5 March 2018 and 8 March 2018 adequately identified some of the animals.
On the third day of the hearing, during his evidence to the committee, he admitted that his certification of the ICT testing was therefore misleading.
He denied the rest of the charges, including that his conduct had been dishonest and that it had risked undermining Government testing procedures designed to promote public health.
During the course of the hearing, Mr Chalkley accepted that he had failed to identify some 45% of the animals he had injected on 5 March 2018 and had, in respect of each of the skin thickness measurements for those animals, randomly chosen a figure that he believed would be appropriate based on the breed, age and sex of the animal.
The committee heard oral evidence in mitigation, including from a former colleague who had worked with him in practice since 2006, as well as receiving a large number of written testimonials from various sources that attested to his honesty, integrity, willingness to help others, and charitable work in support of animal welfare.
The committee concluded that the first two charges had been proven and as a result chose to suspend Mr Chalkley from the register for three months.
