The RCVS now has a policy which was approved by the RCVS Council on 5 June 2000 and then endorsed by the Council of the British Veterinary Association. It includes in the proposal that veterinary surgeons should have power to delegate acts of veterinary surgery to people holding qualifications recognised from time to time by RCVS.
It is not known at this time whether this will be accepted by the Government, and in any case would require a change in the law. In the meanwhile DEFRA are pressing on with exemption orders to permit trained non-veterinarians to carry out certain operations, notably bovine pregnancy diagnosis by ultra-sound scanning and equine dental technicians' work.
GEOTA is seeking a change in the law to regulate the position of essential oil therapists working with animals. As things stand, the only practical way to achieve that is by convincing the DEFRA that an exemption order ought to be made.
DEFRA has power under section 19 (4)(e) of the 1966 Act to make an order specifying "any minor treatment, test or operation". Such an order allows people other than vets to do the thing in question, provided any conditions laid down in the order are complied with. This power has been used in the past to permit, for example, physiotherapy under veterinary direction and the taking of blood samples from farm animals by trained people.
GEOTA is actively working on proving the safety and efficacy of this complementary therapy by conducting a trial on fibroblastic sarcoids.
Text approved by the RCVS