Maintaining OV status

Re: Maintaining OV status

Sammy82 — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:13:08 GMT

If anyone is looking for an insomnia cure, I think I found it! What do people think of the Improve website? I have just registered and done the first 2 hrs of the essential skills course you get free as a grandmother OV. I would be very unhappy to pay £150 for it! 50% of it are just links to the Defra or RCVS website. When it came to the exercises I thought it would finally get a bit more exciting but a blank sheet saying "list all the notifiable diseases you can think of" or "list the 12 principles of certification", and then a list of answers for you to compare if you got it right, without even commenting on your answers, is not my idea of online learning. At least the quiz was slightly better. I also spoke to Defra as I am not currently working as OV, but have been until last winter, and they said that everyone who carried out OV work within the last 2 years will be granted the "grandfather" rights. So if you are currently taking a break or doing locum work, remember to register before the 31st to avoid the fees for retraining if you have plans to do OV work again in the near future.

Edit: really not impressed with the essential skills course. On the fact sheet about Avian Influenza they tell you about the most recent outbreaks in Nov 14 and last month, then the summary you watch immediately after begins with "Did you know.. the last confirmed outbreak was in 2008" ????

Re: Maintaining OV status

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 13:57:31 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]No change to the worming requirement within five days of travelling back to the UK.[/quote]I haven't read it but wishing to be pedantic I think that should read '1-5 days before returning to the UK'. There will then be no ambiguity and no possibility of the client suing for giving misleading information. Still if that is what the VDS advises they should not be surprised if they get a glut of claims.

Re: Maintaining OV status

Bob Russell — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:51:43 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

[quote user="Chris Barker"]Have you seen the interesting circular from the VDS to its members regarding changes in the Passport scheme from January? Very useful, and I have already used it to update the pamphlet we give to all those clients seeking passports. [/quote]Hopefully you didn't quote the ambiguous line which states that pets must be treated for tapeworm within 1-5 days of returning to the UK. This has already mislead one member of this forum!

[/quote]

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

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Not mislead but did look confusing! Now clarified on VDS website!

No change to the worming requirement within five days of travelling back to the UK.

Re: Maintaining OV status

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:04:27 GMT

Re: Maintaining OV status

Michael Woodhouse — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 22:36:43 GMT

[quote user="Chris Barker"]So for our practice of 5 we really only need 1 OV, perhaps two to allow for holidays/absences.[/quote]

Looked at that. My thoughts were it was looking a lot cheaper to maintain, rather than gain OV status. We also hold lots of different panels, but what happens when a dog comes in for a rabies booster on a Saturday morning and they leave fro France early hours of Sunday?

Our intention was to increase export fees across the board to reflect the additional costs and just accept it as another cost of running the practice. I bet I don't sign 4 pet passports a year.

Re: Maintaining OV status

Mark Hedberg — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:36:43 GMT

[quote user="Chris Barker"]

the answer came back that for there to be confidence abroad in the validity of UK animal passports then those signing and issuing them must be seen to be up to 'standard'

[/quote]

Bit silly - any vet in the EU can issue or sign a passport. So the initial training of UK vets suddenly isn't as good as EU vets?

Re: Maintaining OV status

Alan Tevendale — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 11:23:08 GMT

We are doing much the same at our practice. We have 13 vets to register and for most of these it's fairly straight forward. Unfortunately for us we also do a large number of exports of animals (small animal, avian, large animal and zoo), by-products exports, surviellance and TB testing. This means that for a number of our staff, myself included, we will need to register for 9 out of the 10 modules. By my calculations this is going to cost me an average of just under £500/year/vet to maintain OV status. More if the avian and by-products modules aren't at the cheaper end of the price range.

Obviously these are costs that will have to be passed on to the appropriate clients but it's still an expense that will have to be met. With the current TB tendering process will these increased costs put off some smaller practices from continuing to undertake these duties?

Re: Maintaining OV status

Chris Barker — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 09:46:26 GMT

We are in the process of registering our five OVs under their 'grandfather rights' before the price goes up in early Jan. Within 3-5 years we will have to undergo revalidation. When I ventured to suggest that all that SA practitioners wanted to do in the general run of things was to sign animal passports, and that this was a 'private' matter between practice and client and didn't involve 'employment' by the State, the answer came back that for there to be confidence abroad in the validity of UK animal passports then those signing and issuing them must be seen to be up to 'standard'

Have you seen the interesting circular from the VDS to its members regarding changes in the Passport scheme from January? Very useful, and I have already used it to update the pamphlet we give to all those clients seeking passports. But going forward I think we will save money/hassle by only offering 1, perhaps 2, vets up for OV revalidation - any VS can examine the animal chip/check its chip/perform the rabies vaccination. It just needs a recognised OV to sign off the rabies vaccination in the passport, which they can do on behalf of the colleague that inserted the chip/checked the chip/vaccinated the animal providing the PMS holds the proper detail. So for our practice of 5 we really only need 1 OV, perhaps two to allow for holidays/absences.

Re: Maintaining OV status

nikki — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 00:35:49 GMT

You need to tick a few boxes and pay £39 plus VAT and then you get approved for a few years. Think it's until 2019 then will have to do some CPD on it via Improve. Do it by 9th Jan or something like that or price goes up to £59 plus VAT and definitely do before March or will have to do full training now.

Re: Maintaining OV status

scatty — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:59:28 GMT

I think you have until March to re-register (I need to do mine too). I think you do need to pay Improve and that you do the training online. Hope that helps..........