Under care guidance
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The Royal college of veterinary surgeons (RCVS) issued new guidance for vets, which became effective on 1st September 2023. The guidance is called the ‘Under care guidance’ and one of the aims is to improve access to care for veterinary patients.
How does this affect you?
You are entitled to access to 24/7 emergency first aid and pain relief for your birds, however as a single vet practice, the Chicken Clinic is unable to offer this. This means that to legally undertake the care of your birds, we (you and the Chicken Clinic) need to set up a ‘mutual agreement’ with a veterinary practice that can offer you access to 24/7 emergency first aid and pain relief to cover times when the Chicken Clinic is not available.
What is a mutual agreement?
A mutual agreement means that the vet practices named on the agreement, have agreed to share the care of your birds. The written mutual agreement states the responsibilities of each vet practice (routine or emergency care), it also allows the named vet practices to share relevant information regarding treatments and advice given to you about your birds - this is essential to protect your birds e.g. from prescribing treatments that should not be mixed.
You must give your consent for the veterinary practices named on the agreement to share:
relevant information regarding the mutual veterinary care of your flock
relevant personal data under GDPR
How do we set up an agreement?
You , the Chicken Clinic and the emergency vet practice need to sign a form with the option you choose:
Option A: Mutual agreements should already be in place for existing clients - you don’t need to do anything!
Option B: Vet practice of your choice: If you are already registered with a local small animal veterinary practice, then a mutual agreement can be set up with your registered vet, or another veterinary practice of your choice.
Please note: whilst the RCVS encourages vets to work together, there is no guarantee that a vet practice will enter into an agreement for mutual care with the Chicken Clinic
Option C: Watkins and Tasker veterinary practice Portishead, are a small animal vet clinic, with an exotics specialist, they have a specialist exotics / bird friendly hospital ward (away from cats and dogs) and they are my referral practice for imaging (x-ray, ultrasound) and surgery. They are happy to provide emergency first aid and pain relief for Chicken Clinic clients (once a mutual agreement is in place).
Please plan in advance and consider how you would travel to Portishead in an emergency.
For further information please see: Under care guidance or email sharon@chickenclinic.co.uk to discuss your needs.
PLEASE NOTE:
The Chicken Clinic is currently operational 3 days per week, and can not provide out of hours visits between Friday and Monday
Video calls are available outside of this time.
I aim to reply to emails within 24 hours.
Chicken Clinic registered clients only, in an emergency call: 07769 021125.
If no answer, please call your emergency vet under our mutual care agreement
All links were current at the time of publishing