/b/veterinary-news/posts/6368 The Disciplinary Committee (DC) of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has suspended a veterinary surgeon for a period of six months for issuing two false horse passports, having found him to have been “consciously dishonest”. At a hearing whichen-USTelligent Community 10https://www.vetsurgeon.org/b/veterinary-news/posts/6368Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:36:05 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:54eff0fb-4b01-477a-98f4-393998558a52Martin Jones0<p>Sheesh, what a minefield......</p> <p>I certainly don&#39;t wish to comment on Mr Illing&#39;s conduct, or on the Disciplinary Committee&#39;s sanction: such behaviour would be prurient in the extreme. Best to leave it to the Daily Mail readers.</p> <p>But is there a sanction to be made against clients who attempt such coercion? We&#39;ve all met them - and there are few amongst us who have worked in farm practice that haven&#39;t come up against it in, say, OTMS.</p> <p>When a client attempts to get us to break the rules, and they know plainly that this is so, is there any punishment for them to bear? Two points: they are certainly acting outwith the rules of the Horse Racing Authority, if not also the law; second, it might allow stressed colleagues to better deflect such requests if we were legitimately able to state that such behaviour by the client could lead to them into hot water.</p> <p>We do, as a profession, get ourselves into the most godawful messes. And rarely are the risks balanced by any palpable remuneration. My sympathies do, of course, lie with Mr Illing as he is the only apparent loser in all of this. I bet the clients will be off down the road with clear consciences.</p> <img src="https://www.vetsurgeon.org/aggbug?PostID=6368&AppID=5&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">