BVA President Carl Padgett's Address To Congress
12 years ago
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1st October, 2012 11h26
BVA Congress 2012 Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool
My Lord, members of the Association, ladies and gentleman.
I am delighted to welcome you this evening as we open BVA Congress 2012 here in the fantastic surroundings of the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, home of not one, but TWO, genetically ambiguous species – the historic liver bird and the superlambanana! – both thankfully not presenting challenges to the veterinary profession!
This Congress marks the culmination of my year as President of the BVA and is presented under the theme of my presidential year – delivering a healthy future.
Throughout the year I have spoken at many dinners and meetings across the UK outlining the crucial role of veterinary surgeons in delivering a healthy future for animals, for humans, and on national and global issues of food security, disease surveillance, and the human-animal bond.
For me the last year has been about cementing some of the progress that has been made in recent years – not just in terms of the many animal health and welfare and public health issues the BVA campaigns on, but also in terms of the health of our Association.
I’m proud to say that on many issues we have delivered. It’s true we’ve had our fair share of frustrations as the wheels of government turn slowly – delays on dog welfare legislation and legal wrangling over a ban on wild animals in circuses, for example.
And we’ve witnessed the inconsistent nature of devolution, with one part of the UK gearing up for action while another seemingly goes into reverse. (And I’m not just talking about bovine TB!)
But we’ve also had our fair share of successes.
Yes, the wheels of government do turn slowly but sometimes that gives us the time and space we need to make our case convincingly.
To take TB as an example it has taken decades of work to build up the scientific case and political will to convince ministers of the need to tackle the disease in wildlife – years of briefing; and explaining; and educating. And while we take no pleasure in seeing the implementation of a badger cull in England, as veterinary scientists we should be proud that our Association was ‘pivotal’ in Defra’s decision earlier this year to go ahead with the pilots in the South West.
And, despite Wales and Northern Ireland choosing different paths to England, we continue to contribute to policy development on vaccination and cattle measures.
Many of our successes are due in large part to our ability to find common ground, create partnerships, and work in coalitions with our divisions and with our colleagues in industry, in the animal welfare sector, and in government.
A key theme of our lobbying dinners in Belfast, London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff has been the need for the veterinary profession, industry and government to come together to deliver better animal health and welfare.
The four corners of the UK are each figuring out how best to facilitate that partnership working. In what has become a very popular session at BVA Congress in recent years the UK’s four Chief Veterinary Officers will once again face questions from the audience on their different approaches to animal health and welfare issues. Last year we gave them the opportunity to lead a debate on European issues, but this year the ball is firmly in your court with the entire session give over to your questions and I have no doubt that engagement with the profession and industry will be a key theme.
In November the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England held its first meeting bringing experts from industry together with the Chief Veterinary Officer and civil servants to make direct strategic policy recommendations to Defra Ministers.
BVA welcomed the initiative as ‘a bold and fresh approach to policy-making and stakeholder involvement’ and we were grateful to the Board for the opportunity given to BVA and BCVA to engage at an early stage on the delivery of TB testing.
But can a single Board really deliver across all policy issues affecting nearly all species? I am delighted that the Board’s chairman Michael Seals will be speaking tomorrow alongside former BVA President Professor Bill Reilly in a session looking back at the Board’s first year and ahead to what it could and should be achieving.
Other models do exist and in Northern Ireland government has stepped to one side and industry has taken the lead with the announcement last week of the establishment of Animal Health and Welfare Northern Ireland – an initiative to tackle production diseases in cattle in collaboration with Animal Health Ireland.
In tomorrow’s session ‘Changing mindsets on production animal health’ we will explore the working relationship between government, farmers and vets and ask how easy or difficult it is to get farmers to engage with progressive animal health programmes.
These two sessions were in part inspired by the work of the Veterinary Development Council (VDC), set up by BVA under the independent chairmanship of Professor Richard Bennett in response to Professor Lowe’s 2009 report ‘Unlocking Potential’.
The VDC brought together agri-food stakeholders from across the UK to consider for the first time how vets fit into the food chain. Happily the VDC found that good vets are highly prized by their farming clients, but like all those accessing services in these straitened times, they want even more bang for their buck.
The VDC reported in May with a number of recommendations to put vets at the heart of the agricultural sector throughout the food chain, to ensure vets understand and add value to their clients’ businesses, and to address the future role of veterinary technicians.
We, and the other stakeholders involved, are in the process of implementing the VDC recommendations and I hope its lasting effect will be the reassertion of the veterinary role in the food chain and an understanding of the value that vets can bring to the table.
Throughout the year the one call every BVA President dreads is the one from the CVO that brings news of an exotic disease outbreak. So much so that, very kindly, Nigel Gibbens has started most of our out-of-hours phone conversations by saying “This is not a disease emergency”.
Thankfully, we haven’t had the nightmare of a large-scale exotic notifiable disease outbreak, but it was on my watch that the Schmallenberg virus emerged in the UK and began to wreak havoc on farms in the south of England. The impact on those farms experiencing the greatest incidence – dealing with hideously deformed lambs and calves and not knowing how much of their stock would be affected – was devastating. But our excellent veterinary laboratories leapt into action to start investigating what was happening.
Although there is never – ever – a good time to discover a new virus, the emergence of Schmallenberg coincided with the unexpected announcement by AHVLA that veterinary laboratories in England and Wales would be ‘rationalised’ – exactly the right time to illustrate why a robust surveillance network is critical.
And so the BVA mounted a strong defence, raising the issue in the media and capturing the attention of both the Efra Select Committee and the Welsh Affairs Committee, making the case that the ability to deliver a healthy future can only be realised with a strong surveillance system and access to high quality veterinary laboratories.
Vets are the first line of defence against exotic disease protecting animal and human health.
Tackling antimicrobial resistance is also essential to delivering a healthy future as part of the One Health agenda. As a mark of how seriously BVA views the issue, this year it spans both the contentious issues stream and the clinical CPD programme of Congress. And it will no doubt form a significant part of the Wooldridge Memorial Lecture to be delivered by Professor David Heymann, Head and Senior Fellow of the Centre on Global Health Security, tomorrow.
Throughout the year we have been meeting with BVA honorary associates in the European Parliament to set out the veterinary viewpoint on this hugely important issue. As it looms larger on the national and international political radar we’re in danger of being sucked into a blame game with our colleagues in the medical profession and – perhaps more worryingly – with some fellow veterinary professionals abroad.
Meanwhile the media stokes up unnecessary panic by misrepresenting scientific information, most recently on the link between antimicrobials and obesity. Through the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (or RUMA) and the FVE BVA is working hard to respond to these scare stories whilst promoting the vital message of responsible use.
BVA made a strong case in the discussions over our new Professional Code of Conduct for the responsible use of antimicrobials to be embedded in the Code and we were pleased to find the Royal College receptive to our arguments.
Throughout the year we have worked closely with the College on a range of issues and we have each worked hard to more clearly define our separate roles for the benefit of veterinary surgeons and the wider public.
BVA Council gave very clear direction to Officers that the College had to be held to account for our members and we were very grateful to Dr Jerry Davies who attended Council in December as RCVS President to answer members’ concerns about the College’s transparency and its plans to respond to the McKelvey Report’s recommendations.
In March we celebrated the first anniversary of BVA’s new style Council which has been reinvigorated as a debating chamber with excellent contributions being made from across the regions of the UK ensuring grassroots members have a say in BVA policy, many of whom contributed through the BVA community – our online forum for members. And I think it’s particularly important to note that over the past year every single member of Council has made a contribution during our meetings – an observation less commonly made with the previous large format.
The community had a slow start – as all new communities do – but it continues to grow at a steady rate as more and more people sign up and more and more people take the plunge and start posting. One member – who shall remain nameless – summed it up for me recently when he thanked fellow members in the community for allowing him to ask questions and express opinions without shame because (and I quote) “we’re here on this forum to learn”.
The community is still fledgling and the majority of activity is more often than not a piece of news, a quick question answered by a colleague or a member of staff at BVA HQ, or an interesting link. But every now and then a subject really takes off and it runs and it runs. No more so than the issue of welfare at slaughter, which has dominated much of BVA activity over the past year.
On this issue Council has consistently taken a very strong line echoing the views of individual members in the community. We’ve briefed politicians at all levels and taken part in national news and current affairs programmes to explain our position that all animals should be effectively stunned before slaughter.
Welfare at slaughter – and particularly the issue of non-stun slaughter – has also been the subject for one of our new stream of contentious issues webinars delivered in partnership with The Webinar Vet, attracting hundreds of attendees.
This programme has helped BVA reach a wide audience on current policy issues in an accessible and enjoyable way.
At any one time BVA and its committees are working on a whole host of animal health and welfare issues. I’ve already touched on a few but there are far too many to list this evening. However, it would be remiss of me not to mention the time BVA has committed to canine issues.
On dog breeding, microchipping, dangerous dogs legislation, and dog welfare more generally BVA and BSAVA have been at the forefront of discussions in Westminster and the devolved administrations throughout the year. Each part of the UK is progressing at different speeds and it’s a juggling act to keep on top of the myriad consultations and debates.
But dogs are not just something we talk about; we also seek to find practical solutions. In March the BVA and Kennel Club’s Canine Health Schemes launched the Syringomyelia scheme at Crufts – a screening programme to reduce and ultimately eradicate the terrible disease that provided the enduring images of suffering in 2008’s Pedigree Dogs Exposed.
And in April we supported the Animal Welfare Foundation and RSPCA’s Puppy Contract and Puppy Information Pack – designed to give puppy purchasers the tools they need to ensure they are buying a healthy, happy dog.
There’s always more to be done but we were proud to be recognised by the Associate Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare (or APGAW) as one of five “key leaders in acting on dog breeding” and we will continue to work with APGAW and the many stakeholders in the canine world to ensure the best outcome for dogs and their owners.
A significant focus of the past year has also been delivering a healthy future for our association and, most importantly, our members. There’s no escaping the fact that the economic downturn continues to put the squeeze on everyone’s budgets and make the future less certain.
This year BVA’s Board – on which I, and my fellow Officers, sit – has carried out a huge amount of work to ensure good financial and corporate governance for the BVA.
Despite the difficult economic climate I’m very pleased to report that our membership continues to grow year on year and this is because BVA continues to demonstrate value for money to members.
And we know this because over the past couple of months we carried out a major piece of research asking members directly what they want from their association. Your BVA, Your Say is the largest membership research project BVA has ever undertaken and we had a fantastic response rate of 27% – considered ‘very robust’ for such exercises.
Although the research is not yet completed the initial findings indicate good news – and a summary of the results will be available to members later in the year. But we aren’t complacent and like all organisations striving to be the best we are listening to those members who say ‘could do better’. I look forward to delving into the detailed results and taking forward your suggestions and acting on your concerns next year.
The headline figures – presented to the Board and Council recently – show that in addition to being the voice of the veterinary profession and representing veterinary surgeons’ views, members want us to support them in their careers and provide good quality, affordable CPD.
As the only Officer not to have graduated from Liverpool (having lost my fellow Glasgow graduate from the team last year) I must say I spend an inordinate amount of time hearing just how fantastic it is! So there was really no other option than to ask the Vet School to deliver the clinical CPD stream this weekend. Many of the speakers’ names will be familiar to you because they are nationally and internationally recognised in their fields of expertise. And BVA is very grateful to Professor Sue Dawson for enabling this collaboration.
It is the thirst for knowledge amongst our members that has been the driving force behind some of our new initiatives for members this year – the ‘Filling in the gaps’ clinical courses run in conjunction with the RVC CPD Unit, discounted CPD through The Webinar Vet and others, and our upcoming BVA Careers Fair at the London Vet Show this November.
Making a success of CPD is one of the main factors in our decision to move BVA Congress to London Vet Show next year. From 2013 we will be bringing together the contentious issue streams that are the bedrock of BVA Congress, with a high quality clinical CPD programme covering cattle and equine topics for mixed practitioners in addition to the small animal streams, and one of the biggest veterinary exhibitions.
Moving BVA Congress is a significant step for BVA but one that makes complete sense. We know we haven’t attracted the delegate numbers we would like to have done at Congress in recent years – despite many innovative ideas – but by partnering with the London Vet Show we believe that we have the opportunity to reach a much greater audience from next year. It’s an exciting move for BVA I very much hope to see many of you there.
Delivering a healthy future is clearly not something we can achieve in one BVA presidential term, but this year we’ve certainly laid the foundations.
On becoming BVA President twelve months ago I made a few sporting analogies about the Officer team: football and rugby, of course and – with London 2012 on the horizon – the Olympics.
Back then it felt as though I had a marathon ahead of me. But as I stand here this evening the year feels more like I’ve just done the 100m!
It’s a cliché but the presidential year really does fly by.
I’d like to end by picking out one highlight of the year – my visit in August to the AVMA Annual Convention. When we get the chance to meet with colleagues from around the globe it is comforting to learn that we share many of the same challenges.
The new AVMA President Doug Aspros – who I’m delighted to welcome here this evening – delivered a speech which rang very true to me. Paraphrasing Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities he said that for the veterinary profession it is currently the best of times and the worst of times.
I think that quite neatly sums up where we are today. Yes, we have our difficulties, but as a profession we continue to be held in high regard by our clients, our fellow stakeholders and our policy makers.
We have the opportunity to shape the future of animal health and welfare and public health and deliver a future where veterinary surgeons continue to have a pivotal role.
Thank you Carl Padgett BVMS CertCHP
MRCVS BVA President 2011/12
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