Tim Hutchinson becomes 150th RCVS President
Tim Hutchinson has made 'contextualised care' his presidential theme.
Tim Hutchinson has become the 150th president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) at the regulator’s annual Royal College Day.
In his inaugural speech, which set out his presidential vision for the year, Mr Hutchinson reflected on the ‘greater complexity’ faced by the veterinary profession.
Referencing Joseph Tainter’s 1988 book The Collapse of Complex Societies, the new president discussed how complex treatment options, demands and animal populations had changed the landscape. He also addressed ‘increasingly complex’ regulatory, legislative and business framework, which would require more time and resources to navigate.
However, Mr Hutchinson described how contextualised care could be the solution to prevent the sector from a ‘collapse under the weight of complexity’, setting this as his presidential theme.
Contextualised care describes a way of providing veterinary treatment that accounts for the needs and circumstances of each animal. He explained how, economically, not all tools and interventions will be available to all animals.
As such, Mr Hutchinson said practices must provide a range of approaches and treatments to ensure there are appropriate options for all animals and owners.
Mr Hutchinson said: “Developing the art of contextualised care requires years of experience. For recent graduates, the juxtaposition of the demands for contextualisation with the completely understandable clinical naivety can lead to stress for clinicians. Consequently, the solution to a sustainable future for our profession lies in ensuring that the wisdom of experience can be passed down the generations with kindness and support.
“And given that so much of the art of contextualised care revolves around human factors, specifically communication, we can help by ensuring that all professionals feel empowered to give themselves the permission to recognise that focusing CPD on elements such as communication skills are equally, if not more valuable, than learning more clinical material.”
Reflecting on his presidential year, outgoing president Tim Parkin discussed how work with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Veterinary Surgeons Act (VSA) had dominated the College’s year.
Dr Parkin said: “An enormous amount of credit must go to the teams at the College for dealing with requests and needs to respond, sometimes in haste.
“The volume of additional work created by the CMA and VSA work is not sustainable and I think all at the College are looking forward to getting close to the end of the beginning – as we all recognise there will be significant additional work to undertake over the next few months and years to both monitor CMA remedies and put into place what comes from a reformed VSA.”
Image © RCVS
Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
