RCVS Accreditation – The Practice Standards Scheme
Moving to a new area or getting a new pet presents lots of challenges, and one of these can be choosing your veterinary clinic.
Visiting your vet and talking to the team is a great way to assess how you feel about a clinic. Any of our Vets4Pets will be happy to talk to you about how they work, and the service they provide. Thankfully, finding their contact details is easy!
Time can be a demanding currency however, and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (the RCVS) has developed a scheme to do much of the investigative work for you. This is known as the Practice Standards Scheme, and is a voluntary undertaking by a clinic.
What Happens?
Clinics who sign up to the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme are visited by an assessor, who checks the clinic against a set of requirements, evaluates if they are following the RCVS professional conduct code and confirms that all legal requirements of the clinic are being performed well. The General Practice RCVS Accreditation takes this further, assessing to confirm that first opinion clinics are achieving high standards of clinical care. These assessments are repeated, to make sure that clinics keep up the standards required.
RCVS accreditation can give you confidence in the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect of the clinic, so you know that your vets are living up to the high standards you expect.
Clinics which have achieved RCVS accreditation are clear from the badge attached to their literature and website.