A ROW over the proposed introduction of corporate veterinary practices in Ireland came to a head this week.

On Tuesday, the Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI) published a press release which clarified its stance on veterinary practices which are not owned by the veterinary surgeon who works there.

The VCI is the statutory body responsible for the regulation and management of the practise of veterinary medicine and veterinary nursing.

In the press release the VCI said: “The Council does not involve itself in ownership issues. Ownership bears no influence on veterinary services and on the provision of same. The VCI has no statutory role or remit in relation to the ownership of veterinary practices. The veterinary practitioner is the service provider and the clinical discretion of the veterinary practitioner is paramount.”

This confirmed the VCI’s initial amendment to its Code of Professional conduct in December 2017, which stated that a non-registered person or body could own a veterinary practice provided that the practise of veterinary medicine is carried out by a veterinary professional registered with the council.

This amendment was subsequently put on hold in January 2018 to allow for a period of comprehensive consultation with stakeholders. The results of this consultation with the public, stakeholders and the veterinary professions have been compiled in a report by Grant Thornton.

It is widely thought that the vast majority of veterinary surgeons in Ireland do not wish to see local veterinary surgeons competing with large chains. One such example is CVS, which owns 450 veterinary practices throughout Britain and the Netherlands.

Critics say that company-owned veterinary practices will lead to veterinary surgeons being paid less and encouraged by their bosses to only spend time on lucrative cases which bring in more money.

Tensions became apparent on Wednesday morning when Veterinary Ireland (VI) – the representative body for veterinary surgeons in Ireland – issued its own statement which was highly critical of the VCI’s media release. It called on the VCI to “uphold the Veterinary Practice Act 2005 as amended and thereby ensure the autonomy of veterinary practitioners.”

Finbarr Murphy, Chief Executive of Veterinary Ireland, said: “It is clear from the current law (the Veterinary Practice Act 2005 as amended) that lay corporate bodies can have no role in the operation of veterinary practices. Employees of lay corporate bodies would not have clinical autonomy in the provision of veterinary services to the public as an employment relationship is inconsistent with autonomy. This has been borne out by relevant judgments of the European Court of Justice.”

VI have called for an urgent meeting with the VCI in order to “clarify if it intends to carry out its statutory functions in regulating the practice of veterinary medicine and ensuring that lay persons or lay corporate bodies have no role in the operation and control of veterinary practices.”

VI intends to hold the VCI to fulfilling its statutory functions under the existing law and expressed its disappointment that the VCI appears not to have listened to the views of stakeholders and of the public on what they consider to be a very critial issue.