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Enabling legislation
Statutory registration body
Veterinary professional associations
A profession is defined by
the combination of its advanced technical training, adherence to
publicly oriented ethics, and some degree of autonomy such that
members look at least partly to their peers for approval and
advancement. The welfare of a profession is in a symbiotic
relationship with the public interest.
It is self-evident that
clear enabling legislation is required for public veterinary
authorities to carry out their regulatory responsibilities.
Likewise, legislation allowing for the charter of veterinary
professional associations (national and local), establishing
registration bodies, and allowing the existence of private
veterinary practice are central to the rational delivery of
veterinary services. National legislation should not only allow a
private sector but should include ancillary commercial and civil
laws actually enhancing its establishment.
Enabling legislation is essential for empowering veterinary authorities to control movement of animals and confiscate or destroy animals or products derived from them in connection with disease control or eradication activities. Where such enabling legislation does not exist, it must be established in order for public authorities to apply fully the biological principles underlying infectious disease control. Where legislation needs to be updated to conform to current technology or to international trade regulations such as those of the International Office of Epizootics (OIE) and the World Trade Organization, this needs to be done. Legislation on the registration and quality control of veterinary drugs should conform to the recommendations for international regulations, e.g. OIE standards and recommendations.
National legislation pertaining to private sector participation in delivering specific services may well need updating in light of current trends. Particularly ripe for legislative review are various "gentlemen's agreements" which only loosely define the locations and clients where private practitioners and public-employed veterinarians share responsibilities for delivering what are accepted as private sector duties, such as clinical examination, diagnosis and treatment.
Enabling national legislation needs to define legally veterinary and other animal health care practices; to state academic and other qualifications required before registration; and to define the powers of the statutory body. At least the following functions need to be assigned to some combination of legally sanctioned bodies:
(i) examination and certification of new veterinary graduates, immigrant veterinarians and other new entrants to ensure compliance with the statutory acts;
(ii) registration of veterinarians and other animal health care providers indicating the levels of responsibility with which each category may legally be entrusted;
(iii) protection of consumers from unlawful acts by registered animal health care providers;
(iv) generally policing the activities of registered veterinarians and other health care providers to ensure that they act in accordance with laws relating to the practice of veterinary medicine;
(v) prosecuting non-registered persons who allegedly break the statutes; and
(vi) determining those remedies and vaccines that can be sold and dispensed by each class of animal health care practitioners.
Disciplinary
measures may have considerable financial and personal effects and
can range from temporary suspension of the licensee to practice,
fines, compulsory retraining, expulsion from registration or
imprisonment. This range of censure allows statutory bodies and
civil authorities to uphold technical standards of the profession
while wielding a potentially heavy hand when consumer's are
defrauded or injured.
A statutory body for
examining, certifying, registering and disciplining those
providing animal health care services is a necessary means both
to uphold technical standards of the profession and to protect
consumers. Thus, this statutory body, usually referred to as the Veterinary
Board or Council (Ordre or Corporation
Vétérinaire in French; Conselho Federal or Regionais
de Medicina Veterinàrian in Portuguese; Consejo Federal
de Medicina Veterinaria in Spanish) should be independent of
direct control by the national veterinary service, the CVO or the
professional veterinary association, while retaining the
technical and ethical values of the profession.
Local
and/or national certification as to minimal technical competence
signifies that registrants are sufficiently familiar with the
core body of veterinary knowledge, plus any particular local
conditions, to be expected to deliver quality services.
Additionally, internationally recognized registration of
veterinarians (the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and
reciprocal licensing agreements) imposes academic guidelines for
training at veterinary faculties worldwide. In most countries
both private and public sector veterinarians are expected to be
certified and registered by the national registration body. It
follows that the non-veterinary participants in the animal health
care system should also be subjected to certification as to their
minimum technical competence to deliver quality services
appropriate to their training.
Professional associations
enjoy a privileged place in many societies because of the
members' higher education and adherence to a code of ethics.
Their activities are, however, monitored by legal authorities to
ensure that the association or its members avoid abuse of the
public trust.
Where national veterinary professional associations do not exist, they need to be established as a necessary pressure group for rational delivery of veterinary services and as a vehicle for continuing education and professional improvement. National veterinary associations can take a credible advocacy role for the public interest. Governments and economies cannot operate well nor develop fully without the input of the collective contribution of the veterinary profession. As members with internationally recognized qualifications, veterinarians are relatively more mobile in seeking employment in other countries. This professionalism helps to shield veterinarians as a group, as well as individually, from inappropriate political pressure. They therefore can take risks, as a group, both to promote the interest of their clients and to promote the interests of the profession generally.
There are two sides to the coin, however. Veterinarians often take the brunt of personal abuse to implement government-mandated disease control programmes that are unpopular with livestock owners, such as the slaughter of overtly healthy but potentially diseased animals. Veterinary professional associations support unpopular programmes because they are ultimately in the public interest or necessary for national development. Peer support has been critical for public health and development in numerous situations, both in developed and developing countries.
Veterinary associations serve as a forum for communication based on common socialization between public service veterinarians and their peers in private practice and industry. Meetings of the national association provide the occasion for discussion among the various interest groups. Likewise, the veterinary professional association can formulate a common stand on issues affecting the association's members but which also have wider public interest. Finally, the professional association has a critical role to play in maintaining and upgrading the technical competence of its members through continuing education.
The above
benefits of associations do not apply to veterinarians alone.
Animal health assistants, technicians and auxiliaries are also
vital members of the animal health care delivery system. They
need to be included in the veterinary association or to form
their own associations in close collaboration with veterinarians.