Meet the rcvs Day

I spent yesterday in London on a Meet the rcvs day. I learnt a lot about what rcvs (royal college of veterinary surgeons) do and had a nice lunch. I do not know if it is good or bad that I was not what Jill (president of the rcvs) was expecting. I said “what you expected me more gobby and less tatty”, Jill just grinned.
I swear us Africans are coming out the woodwork. The waiter at rcvs was a shy lad and was from my home town of Bulawayo. There was a lady from SA on the bus.

I really do not like London, it is dirty and has no dustbins, l am not a bomber l wanted to dispose of rubbish. London is costly, my 92p dr pepper from the north was in London 1.59 l managed to get one for 1.39.

The statues and artwork are amazing and while the buildings have some wonderful architecture and carvings in stone and bronze they have a cold feeling heart. It is like all those years of scheming inside have stained their souls. I was looking at the church commissioners building opposite parliament when this thought struck me about the difference between their shells and souls. Having said that l do not like cities in general.

The South African lady on the bus told me where to jump off as she was getting off at the same stop. She was a chartered accountant over at the Dept. of transport. Just about opposite the rcvs, as you can guess we chatted about the state of Africa.

I was in London very early and went for a walk along to the houses of parliament in the sun which was nice. I was toying, till l saw the que, of mooching about inside Westminster abbey.
I went instead into Lady Margaret church next to it, a lovely little gem that only a few people were in. The plaques were fascinating with their stories of the long gone and olde writing.
One small statue vignettes on the wall fascinated me. It is in memory of someone but the man kneeling on a cushion has had his legs, arm and head off. The woman facing him and 2 children behind her are perfect. I do not know who it is of he was not mentioned, l assumed the woman was a queen but do not know. Everywhere else even damaged work was not overly damaged. Yet this seemed very deliberate, unfortunately no one was around to ask about it. If anyone knows l would love to hear the reason.

At the rcvs we were split into 2 small groups. l asked a lot of questions, every time the comment any questions popped up... everyone's eyes swivelled towards me. I got the impression that several people were on tender hooks for me to start a blazing row. Actually l see no point in doing that. Some questions were answered in general conversations other answers were incomplete due to time but at least in part were answered, even though it did open others unasked. It is up to me to decide if l really care enough at the moment to know the answers or leave it till such a time as l decide l want to know.

At one point the other group marched off to the waterproof basement (rcvs seem very proud of the waterproof basement, it was mentioned a lot) apparently the person showing them round is desperate to find out the history of a flag that rcvs store down there. I asked Jill why they had not taken a photo of the flag and sent it to the museums. They have enough to cover every subject in London. I got such a look of total astonishment l thought l had grown an extra head and had to feel for it. Apparently no one had thought of such a simple solution.

l have a better idea of what rcvs did and didn’t do which was a good starting point as like 99% of veterinary staff l had no idea and what l thought was about 90% wrong.
rcvs do the following:
1) Sort curriculum for vet and vn education and see that whoever supplies it stays suitable and current as do those practising.
2) Information storage and grants for veterinary research and other projects education travel etc.
3) Talk with the politicians etc over various animal related issues –although not convinced they seem to do any good again answers were vague, l kept being told to read the literature and no hard facts were given to my questions, l was not impressed.
4) Disciplinary if it brought the profession into public disrepute – The example given was, if a vet stole another persons spouse that didn’t matter.(except to the other spouse) If someone lied about work they had done that did.
5) Fees for registration to practice which are meant to help with the various things they do 1-4 above.
6) bvna are there to support nurses and bva to support vets, rcvs is the paperwork wagon that rolls along in between.

On the 2 veterinary registers - this is people legally able to call themselves and practice veterinary work: there are 8232 qualified vet nurses and 23445 vet surgeons in the UK

On the trip home there was some shrill voiced possibly arab female (l never looked even when getting off the phone my head ached to much to care) on the phone behind me she talked non stop for over 2 hours and when l got off the train at my stop she was still shrieking down the phone in a godawful monotone shrill. ... Ahh well at least l had a lovely lunch and an informative day.

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I missed the programme last night on vet's but have been reading about it, as usual the tv did not give an honest balanced view. I understand that vet staff are having a hard time today due to this. Animals in need of tests are being refused the tests by the owners as they say vets are ripping them off. As animals can not talk the basic blood tests are invaluable to diagnosis and treatment.
Tempers are frayed when they are told that a prescription will cost x and need regular check ups every few months by the vet.
Thank goodness l am off for a few days hopefully by then things will have died down.