The BBC recently aired a Panorama program called It Shouldn't Happen at a Vet's. (For the next few days you can see this program here.)
The following is a letter from The Bella Moss Foundation in response to the program:
The BBC’s programme on Medivet (It Shouldn’t Happen At A Vet’s) not only made grim watching for all of those who care about the health and welfare of companion animals, but confirmed for those of us who have had bad experiences from their services that the issues go far deeper than isolated incidents of poor care or small-scale fraud.
In declaring our interest, The Bella Moss Foundation was created in 2005 after Bella, a 10 year-old Samoyed, became the first publicly reported canine death from MRSA. The Hendon branch of Medivet was intimately involved in that case and two of the vets there were the subjects of complaints and investigated by the RCVS. The complaints were not upheld because they concerned clinical issues rather than issues of professional behaviour. The Bella Moss Foundation provides support and information to pet owners and collaborates with the Veterinary profession on training for vets and vet nurses and with the Government on animal welfare policy.
The Medivet philosophy is clearly stated on the website where, in addressing prospective partners, it speaks of ‘...avoiding referring... valuable source(s) of...practice revenue to referral hospitals’).In other words, if we keep the patient in the system, whatever their clinical need, we keep the money in the system. We can believe that not only have Medivet vets manipulated bills in order to maximise income, they have, and will continue, to discourage owners from taking pets to specialist referral hospitals in order to prevent the money leaving the system. This is a clear example of how the Medivet philosophy puts the income of partners above the welfare of its patients and the requirements of the RCVS who, in addressing our complaint about the care received by Bella at the Hendon practice specifically criticised the statement on the website and the philosophy it espouses; yet there it remains, just as important.
As for nurses in vet practices, improvement would begin by adopting the model of registration and regulation used in Nursing, and by giving the title Veterinary Nurse statutory recognition. To anyone who has qualified as either a veterinary nurse or human health nurse, the ‘title’ trainee nurses is disingenuous - a trainee nurse in this context is a care support worker by any other name and should not have access to the designation ‘nurse’: and, whilst there is at present no definitive list of duties that such staff may undertake, there should be a list of things they should not, under any circumstances, perform; and invasive clinical procedures should be at the top of that list.
Was the programme sensationalist? Yes; was it accurate? Within the context of the programme, yes; does it harm the veterinary profession? As a whole probably not, but it does tell us there is something seriously wrong with the corporate approach to the provision of veterinary care in the UK and with the regulation of professional vets and their staff.
Those wishing to refresh their memory of Medivet’s responses should go to; http://www.medivet.co.uk
For Bella’s story www.thebellamossfoundation.com
Jill Moss, President; Mark Dosher, Secretary; The Bella Moss Foundation
Footnote from Jill Moss
Jill Moss in 2009 discovered that Kafir Segev after being struck off by the RCVS was still working without an appeal in place. At that time Panorama approached Jill to be involved in the programme. Jill declined, but helped the panorama team prepare to film Kegev undercover at the Stanmore practice and Jill Moss is glad that he is no longer working as a vet but she is very disappointed in the RCVS’s decision to not take action against him in 2004 when the original complaint re Bella’s clinical care was investigated. In Jill Moss’s opinion it is the staff at the Hendon Medivet practice that refused a critically ill Bella to an outside specialist that allowed the MRSA to become systemic and fatal. BMF sees animals with serious infections recover successfully with early treatment. Medivet denied this and Jill Moss holds Medivet entirely responsible for Bella’s death.
Jill Moss would also like to state that in the 8 years of being a medivet client her insurance company paid out over £40,000.00. Whereas other vets BMF now knows through our work would have charged a small proportion for the same conditions diagnosed.